Ballots are due back at the Block Island Power Company by 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30 for the election of three members of the Block Island Utility District Board of Commissioners. There are six people running for the three seats on the five-member board. Three are incumbents: Barbara MacMullan, Everett Shorey, and Bill Penn, all of whom have been on the board since its beginning, and all of whom were involved in the conception and realization of the idea of a rate-controlled utility district as members of the town’s Electric Utility Task Group and later the BIPCo Transition Team.The three new candidates are John Warfel, Tom Risom, and Tim Dowling.
All six candidates have provided profiles and statements as to their experience and desire to be on the board that were included in the ballot mailing.
Most people don’t really know, or think about where their electricity comes from or why it costs what it does. The exercise of taking the Block Island Power Company from a private, for-profit, investor owned utility to a not-for-profit, ratepayer-controlled entity has shown the community just how complex it can be. From engineering to finance, power-purchase contracts, rate setting, and regulatory
