By Tina Kitt
    The Wauneta Breeze
    
     Recent hikes in wholesale electrical costs have put a drain on the Wauneta Utilities Department, creating an 8.3 percent loss over the past year, according to Utilities Superintendent Bill Bischoff.
     Instead of passing rate increases along to their customers in Wauneta, the Village has absorbed those increases for several months, explained Bischoff. But that free ride will have to come to an end, agreed members of the Wauneta Village Board.
     At their regular monthly meeting last week, the board considered rate hike percentages suggested in a mini-rate study presented by Don Suda and Gary Hanken of Southwest Public Power District in Palisade.
     The Village saw a 3.5 percent increase in wholesale rates from WAPA, one of their power suppliers, and another wholesale rate increase is expected again in 2006.
     In addition, transmission line costs which have been waived for the past 30 years will begin in July, creating an estimated $14,137 in additional annual expenses for the electric department.
     According to the SWPPD study, a rate increase of 3.5 percent is needed just to break even with earlier wholesale rate increases; a 4.9 percent increase would be needed to offset next year's expected WAPA increase as well as previous hikes.
     Neither increase would cover the wheeling charge cost on the transmission line north of town that takes effect in July.
     According to Suda and Bischoff, a 7.3 percent rate increase to electric users in Wauneta would cover past and upcoming WAPA increases, the transmission line charge, and create a cushion whereby the Village could absorb regular wholesale rate increases, hopefully without having to implement another local rate hike for three to five years.
     The board will review the information presented last week and be prepared to vote on a rate increase at next month's meeting on March 8.