ashe

I've still not seen the answer to the question on the table for DJest. Who leased the building to Blue Ridge?

I think you are full of it. Taking smack about stuff you have no knowledge of.

Who leased it - answer me - take all day tomorrow to gather the information if you need. I can wait.

I'll keep asking.

Well, we can address another mistake you made too. Coal produces more energy than natural gas. Therefore if the issue is to keep up with demand, going from coal to natural gas would mean less final product would be produced. So your suggesting the switch is to meet demand, is another mistake.

Well, excuse me! I guess you all never make mistakes. I meant to say power stations, not nuclear power stations. That does not change the point. Coal driven power stations are still having to be converted to natural gas, which costs money. This is a major contributor to rate increases.

<MountainMan58<(view profile)

you will find that many of our nuclear power stations that were coal driven are having to convert to natural gas and other fuels so that the demand for electricity can be met.

Mountain man please show us just one nuclear power station that is coal driven.

Maybe they should take the grant money and give it back to the people who can't afford to pay their electric bills. Now that would be giving back to the community...I understand the scholarships for kids to attend college, but put the grant money where it is needed...

You will also find that when you do your research, Nuclear power plants are not coal, natural gas, hydro, etc driven. They are NUCLEAR driven hence the name nuclear plants. They are built near water for cooling purposes

Fins you beat me to it I think that mountain man needs to learn about nuke power plants since a nuke plant and a coal plant are not even close to being the same.

DJest,

I do not know where you got this information about a lease with the old building. I assure you that it is not true. Again, you can check with the Ashe County Register of Deeds and view the deed for this property. Also, I will be willing to bet BREMCO would provide information on their vehicle fleet and learn how often they purchase new vehicles. It would be public record. Since vehicles are also depreciated on a yearly basis (for roughly 5-7 years, depending on the company) I highly doubt BREMCO's trucks are causing this rate increase. If you do not understand depreciation, you can check out Wilkes Community College. I am pretty sure they offer several Accounting 101 classes each semester.

Why be so judgmental of BREMCO's presence in the community? All successful businesses give back to their communities. I saw recently where scholarships were awarded to students and grants are available to provide much needed funding to our schools. You failed to mention this when listing how wasteful BREMCO is in spending money.

"you will find that many of our nuclear power stations that were coal driven are having to convert to natural gas and other fuels so that the demand for electricity can be met."


Bueller.... Bueller.... Bueller?

Bremco owning that building was a recent development, they most definitely did not own it for 40 years. Possibly a lease to own but I will tell you first hand, that building was by no means unsafe. I spent a lot of time in that building as well as the other Bremco offices. Touchstone energy co-ops do work together in an outage situation, as do Electricities across NC. None of these help with a Duke Power outage as they are "for profit". Duke must rely on pulling people from across other states and contractors to help in those situations. Of course Duke ranks as one of the worst they are the largest utility in the US. Im not going to sit here and defend Duke as I have very few dealings with them. Comparing Bremco and Duke is basically the same as comparing Appalachain to the Dallas Cowboys in football. I for one have a hard time paying what I do for electricity so the co-op can buy new trucks every year, have countless dinners/parties, advertise/ sponser golf tournaments, and sell power to other cooperatives for less than what our customers pay. At the end of the day they are spending OUR money and I for one find it ridiculous at some things they waste it on. If we own the co-op then why is it we dont have any say in what goes on.

I have to agree with mountainman58, the service is great when it comes to power outages...My electricity during winter storms have thankfully stayed on..and if it ever goes off they are quick to get it back up and going...I don't care for the smart meters as they get older there will be problems...I liked it best when they let the guys go around and read the meters, you are sure to get a right reading...and solar flares can and will have impacts on the meters I'm just waiting for that to happen...

DJest,

I think when you do your research about finding the "owner" of BREMCO's old building, you will find it is owned by BREMCO. If you don't believe me, check with the Ashe County Register of Deeds. According to BREMCO's Facebook page, the old building was 40 years old, fully depreciated, and presented an unsafe working environment for the lineman. I am sure BREMCO will depreciate the new building with the same depreciation schedule.

I recently moved to West Jefferson. My old electric company was Progress Energy (which is a good company) but I could not find an actual office anywhere in my area. The only places I could pay my bill were stations located at various businesses (grocery stores, Walmart, etc.). I could not pay my bill online or in person at a pay station without paying a $5-10 dollar processing fee. It sometimes took 3-4 days for my payment to post, so I had to make sure I paid early! If Progress provided no employees to collect my payment or help me apply for service, then how could I be sure there were lineman in my area to restore my service in the event of an outage??? I enjoy being able to walk into the local office here in West Jefferson and pay my bill or request to open an account in person. Also, when winter time comes and my power goes out, I know a local lineman will soon have my lights on again. This type of service to our community should mean something to us all.

No one likes rate increases, especially me. But, if you will do your homework, you will find that many of our nuclear power stations that were coal driven are having to convert to natural gas and other fuels so that the demand for electricity can be met. This takes money to accomplish. Oh, by the way, guess what is happening to the coal now being produced? It is being shipped to China to be used in THEIR electrical power plants.

I have lived in many places across the southeast, and can list some of the worst electric companies, with one of them being Duke Energy. During one ice storm that I experienced in the Duke Energy territory, my power was out for a week. All the co-ops surrounding my area were restored withing 2-3 days. I learned the reason co-ops restore electricity so quickly is because they work together. I sure never found anyone at Duke working together.

I feel lucky to be living in BREMCO territory. So what if I pay a little more for my power, at least I have it when I need it.

Dgest you need me to help you out with achs question?

The advertising and catering spending alone would be enough to get anyone steaming. Bet they dont make that public either

The post office became so unreliable it forced me to pay all my bills online. bremco used to be very competitive on propane, last year I bought twice from Independence gas and they were more than 10 cents a gallon cheaper.

It's a shame I've never been in the new building. My bill is paid electronically. I wonder how many others pay their bill like me and will never step foot in there. Sounds like a waist of money!

Seems there is a lot of business information hidden from us the owners of skyline and bremco. The bremco bunch has a nominating committee that nominates the sitting board each term. Guess who appoints the nominating committee? Thats right the sitting board and its their buddies they know will nominate them each term. That board and officers in both companies go to great lengths to keep us in the dark and pray we never come knocking on that board room door. I am sure they have great smoke blowing answers for us also and insult our intelligence.

All of the subsidiarity businesses that our co-ops have started tick me off. For one, they seem to have only been ways to hide profits instead of rebates to customers/owners. And two, I have a problem with co-op utilities competing with other businesses already established in the area.

Those same funds is how Skyline started Carolina West Wireless and Bremco started Blue RIdge Energies.

What really pisses me off about Skyline is that certain parts of their business is still protected because they are a monopoly. But their subsidiarity businesses like SkyBest, SkyBest Fiber, and Skybest TV are expanding all over into other territories to compete with other providers.