Citizens once again are given a Choice

Residents in our community are asked to choose their natural gas provider during the selection period, which begins on Friday, April 15, 2016 and ends on Thursday, April 28, 2016 for the Nebraska Choice Gas program.

The program began in 1998 when a group of Nebraska communities banded together to take advantage of an opportunity to compete as a supplier in the natural gas retail market.

ACE, the Public Alliance for Community Energy, was created under the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool (NMPP) umbrella with the mission of supplying competitively priced natural gas while keeping revenues in the state to benefit all member communities.

ACE is owned and controlled by its Nebraska member communities, including Kimball, who appoint a primary and an alternate representative to serve on the Board of Directors.

The Choice Gas Program gives customers the opportunity to choose your natural gas provider and the pricing options that best suit your needs, by automatically rolling it over to your current provider, selecting online, calling your provider and mailing your choice to Source Gas.

Regardless of which supplier is selected, Source Gas will maintain your local natural gas system, read the meters, send bills and answer any inquiries you might have.

The natural gas commodity price that you, as a Choice Gas rollover customer, will be charged will not carry over from the previous year unless agreed to by the supplier. Furthermore, your final rollover price may be different from the prices quoted during the selection period.

With Source Gas’s Choice Gas program, you can now choose a Supplier and lock in a price for up to three years. Customers selecting a multi-year term through their Supplier will know their pricing option and rate not only for the new program year (June-May), but for future program years as well.

As a not-for-profit supplier, revenue earned above the cost of operation may be returned to ACE communities by the Board of Directors. Since its inception ACE has returned thousands of dollars to member communities.

Today, ACE supplies natural gas to more than 22,000 customers and includes 72 member communities.

According to City Administrator, Daniel Ortiz, the City of Kimball recently received a check from ACE in the amount of $3,929.14.

In the past, according to Ortiz, Kimball has utilized the funds for community betterment projects the City.

For example, the City used $4,665 received from Source Gas in 2008 towards a piece of playground equipment for the Gotte Park and $4,245 received in 2009 was used for 50 new red and white flags and flagpoles to adorn Highways 71 and 30 during our special occasions, as well as LED Christmas lights for the downtown area.

The new lighting project downtown will be set up to hold banners and a plan is to use the revenue return to replace the banners.

In 2013 Kimball received $4,629 to purchase US flags for the Lincoln Highway celebration and the money received most recently, totaling $3,002, was used at the local cemetery.

As time nears to make the choice, many residents depend on assistance provided by Kimball resident, Larry Brower, who has negotiated the best price available from gas companies for a large number of citizens for many years.