Letter: Questioning STPUD’s rate increase plan

To the community,

I was so moved by our public utility company’s recent 8½ inch x 11 inch glossy mailer expounding about what a terrific job they are doing that I thought I would share my opinion of their performance.

Regretfully, I do not share their vision or theory. They proudly pat themselves on the back stating that their cost for service as being lower than the cost for similar communities, which may be true, however, I expect that the other communities do not have a 30 percent vacancy rate as ours does. Many of our neighborhoods are filled with second homes that are empty most of the year and yet STPUD still collects real fees for those services, imaginary or not.

It is my opinion that our public utility company appears to be in a race to catch-up to those other communities. Below is a graph of my bill over the past six quarters illustrating a 36 month projected path should the trend continue.

Comments welcome.

Mark Allione, South Lake Tahoe business owner