Heads-up to anyone in Juneau, and to anyone moving here soon... (Haines: budget, costs)

[DannyL]

btw , rural off the road natives don't pay 800.00 a month electric bills, they get get a stipend from the state if they qualify for it, which can cover over 2/3 of their bill.
juneau residents probably will not be eligible for anything like this, due to 3 decades of cheap power.

[Barkingowl]

Why not put the legislature on a cruise ship & have it sail back & forth between the various communities?

[rotorhead]

You mean like that toxic waste barge that just kept sailing on and on, since no port anywhere would let them dock?

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by DannyL

btw , rural off the road natives don't pay 800.00 a month electric bills, they get get a stipend from the state if they qualify for it, which can cover over 2/3 of their bill.
juneau residents probably will not be eligible for anything like this, due to 3 decades of cheap power.

It actually has nothing to do with either "off the road" or with "natives". Tok, Central and Circle are all locations which receive the subsidy, and so does Haines, for example.

It does not pay 2/3 of their bill, and it would never cover anything close to an $800 per month bill. The highest subsidy paid in 2007 amounted to $171.17 per month to residents of Noatak.

The subsidy is intended to have an effect equal to that provided by State funds spent to reduce electric rates in urban areas. It is not something unique to rural areas, but rather just another example where most of the benefits go to urban areas, and the rural program is capped to make sure it doesn't actually cost too much.

Fairbanks, Anchorage, the Railbelt, the Richardson Highway sites from Big Delta to Fairbanks, Juneau, Glenallen, Valdez, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kodiak are not eligible for the rural subsidy because they have already received State funding that results in lower electric rates. Barrow is also not eligible because the base rate in Barrow (due to low cost natural gas for fuel) is lower than the subsidy target rate of 12.87 cents per kWh.

The subsidy pays up to 37.65 cents per kWh (based on 95% of a maximum rate of 52.5 cents per kWh). It is also limited to 500 kWhs per month for an individual or to 70 kWh per month per individual in a community project. Hence the most it will pay is $187.50 to an individual per month, and less for a community project (heating a community hall, for example).

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Here ya go, Danny:

If I Can Take It There, I Can Take It Anywhere | Outside Online

That one is absolutely hilarious! Everybody in Barrow has heard about it of course, but it turns out that Joe The Waterman has never actually seen it. Joe told me this morning that everyone who mentions it says the same thing, that the part about him is the only part that is accurate. And that's true too.

So, I've downloaded it and sometime in the next couple days I'll take my laptop over and let Joe actually see what everyone is laughing about.

An update... Joe retired from water delivery 3-4 years ago. (He still gets phone calls asking him for water delivery.) He does indeed give tours of his museum and he's never labeled a damned thing.

I've previously posted a series of 10 pictures from Joe The Waterman's Museum:

Some recent AK photo's

This is one of the images from that article:

[stiffnecked]

So if Joe the Waterman is still around how about Fran Tate? Geez, I remember when Joe delivered our water. 30 degrees below zero and all he ever wore was blue jeans and a white t-shirt. He'd run up the house, run back to the truck, and then kind of come running back dragging the water hose. Skinny as a toothpick.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

So if Joe the Waterman is still around how about Fran Tate? Geez, I remember when Joe delivered our water. 30 degrees below zero and all he ever wore was blue jeans and a white t-shirt. He'd run up the house, run back to the truck, and then kind of come running back dragging the water hose. Skinny as a toothpick.

Fran is... well she's sort of unique! She is approaching 80 (this fall). She's getting old, not doubt about it, but she expends more energy in the first hour she's awake than I do all day!

And Joe is just like mom. Still skinny, still tells jokes. Except now he works at Pepe's rather than delivering water. I tease him all the time that the only way I can get water from him now is by the glassful.

He still wears t-shirts.

[RayinAK]

I know of no subsidy for electricity in Fairbanks and vicinity where I live. I buy electric power from GVEA, which is the major provider around here. I also don't know of any subsidy on heating fuel in this area. My utilities cost (fuel and electricity) are around $600.00 per month x 12 months with heating fuel at approximately $3.56 per gallon. Just got 341 gallons two weeks ago, for a total of $1,222.96. Since I pay cash, the fuel company gives me a $10.00 to $15.00 break as long as I pay within a week.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

I know of no subsidy for electricity in Fairbanks and vicinity where I live.

How long have you lived in Fairbanks Ray? Remember when the Intertie didn't exist? Do you have any idea how much money the State has spent on power production facilities along the Railbelt? Do you know why the State invested $274 million in the Healy power plant?

Those State expenditures to subsidize your power bill are why it isn't twice what it is now.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

How long have you lived in Fairbanks Ray? Remember when the Intertie didn't exist? Do you have any idea how much money the State has spent on power production facilities along the Railbelt? Do you know why the State invested $274 million in the Healy power plant?

Those State expenditures to subsidize your power bill are why it isn't twice what it is now.

Around 25 years around here, and a few years more around anchorage. I just don't know of any subsidy that has brought the cost of utilities down to anybody I know, nor to me. In fact, the cost of electricity has gone up steadily for the past two years, and heating fuel may reach $4.00 per gallon soon. Yes, I understand that fuel and electricity costs a lot more in bush AK, specially where everything must be shipped in.
GVEA: Rate Schedule
GVEA: Healy Clean Coal Plant (HCCP)