Gardner MA Mayor’s Single Decision Last Year to Save Constituents Millions in Next 3 Years
Last year when electric rates were high, Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson opted to sign a 1 year electric contract instead of the usual 3. That one decision will save Gardner rate payers millions in the next 3 years as the new contract which takes effect in November 2023 will see rates drop to 14 cents per kilowatt hour. Read letter from Mayor Nicholson, CLICK HERE.
Listen to the entire Finance Committee Meeting on any device. CLICK PLAY.
In another moment, Mayor Nicholson spoke of getting an eventual credit of about $200,000 from National Grid due to the city overpaying at the incandescent rate for outdoor lighting, rather than the appropriate LED rate. The utility company overbilling was noticed by a very sharp City Engineer Rob Oliva. The overbilling has occurred since 2019 when the last Mayor was in office. As the lookback period is 5 years, Gardner should eventually be made completely whole. And going forward, the bills will be lower.
Other requests were recommended to be approved by the full City Council including a transfer of about $700k to bring snow and ice into the black. A total of $1,002,174.64 was spent for snow and ice removal. Mayor Nicholson stated that the majority of it was the cost of purchasing salt as there were more ice instances than snow instances this year