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DETECO won't allow City of Hemphill to provide electricity

In a news story that aired Thursday on Center Broadcasting, we told you of the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperatives’ decision to not allow the City of Hemphill to provide electrical service to a new nursing home being built just outside the city limits, although city officials felt the business was within service jurisdiction. The coop’s General Manager Larry Warren, has issued a letter to members explaining the decision.  Warren stated the coop carefully reviewed and considered the City of Hemphill’s request and decided for several reasons, and that changing the statutory service territory would not be in the best interest of the co-op’s members. Warren said Deep East has a legal obligation to serve all customers located in the Deep East service area, and the coop takes this obligation very seriously and stands ready to provide reliable and affordable electricity to the nursing home facility.  Warren also noted, the additional load of the nursing facility would provide rate stability in the future for coop members. He added that allowing a neighboring utility, in this case, the city of Hemphill to serve customers, would, “detrimentally affect each and every Deep East member”.  Lastly, Warren said that it’s possible to request that the Public Utility Commission change the service boundaries, but there’s no good faith basis upon which such a filing can be made. He added, Deep East will not mis-represent the facts to the PUC simply to satisfy the city of Hemphill’s request to serve a customer located in the Deep East service area.  The City of Hemphill has said that being able to provide electrical service to the new nursing facility would have helped offset the costs of providing other utilities, which were incurred by the city.

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