OCR Text |
Show South Central Utah Telephone Association workers lay fiber-optic cable near Water Canyon Bridge on Highway 12 north of Tropic, connecting the Tropic switching office with the Bryce Canyon central RICHFIELD Garkane Power Pow-er Association board members, after an earlier unanimous vote to move the cooperative's main office from Richfield to a location on its own power system, faced some strong opposition from its Richfield office employees Monday Mon-day at the company's regular monthly board meeting. The move, which would impact im-pact nine employees of the cooperative who work in that office, would necessitate, for practical reasons, their relocation to Hatch, nearly 100 miles south, where the new office is being proposed, or to a nearby community. commun-ity. The issue of moving the main office to a location on the company's com-pany's power-system is not a new one. It has been a long-standing concern for board members most of whom have long felt that the office belongs on the company's system. The issue has come up several times over the years since the office was first moved to Richfield more than 50 years ago. The board has never before been successful in its attempts to move the office back onto its system, but seems more determined this time to do so. Various board members and consumers have pointed out many times the folly of the power company paying its monthly power bill to Utah Power & Light, and its property taxes Sevier County rather than a county on its own service system. They have reasoned that company paychecks are deposited at banks in Richfield, outside the company's service area and spent outside its service area, that switching office to fie into Panguitch. The work, now well underway, will improve and wpnTid long distance service, provide nHttitumnl toll trunks, and special telephone services such as Caller ID. Richfield Employees Balk At Garkane Board Decision To Move Main Office Onto Its System employee properties are bought and sold outside the service area, that employee property taxes are paid to a county not on the service system, and groceries, and other purchases are made by Richfield office employees outside out-side the company's service area. Those moneys, they have argued, could be circulating in communities on the company's system instead, strengthening the tax base for counties on its system. Garkane General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Carl Albrecht told board members that seven of the nine Richfield office employees would probably not remain with the company for the proposed move to Hatch. Board Member Bill Nelson, Cannonville, asked Albrecht about his intentions and he said that he and Stan Chappell, both of whom have more than 20 years with Garkane, would probably (See Richfield Employees Balk At Garkane Decision, Page 3A) lljljjj Signs are so important, and these are seen by at least a million people each year. It would be a "capital" idea, we think, to correct the spelling of "Capitol" Reef K Richfield Employees Balk At Garkane Decision To Move Main Office To Hatch From Fromt Page stay. Albrecht said he would like to discuss the matter, along with Chappell, with the board in executive session. The strongest and lengthiest appeal for the board to reconsider its decision came from Albrecht who said, "... let's realize first of all that the board is the political arm of Garkane Power and the office issue is a political issue." Albrecht said it was his "fiduciary responsibility and duty to remind the board of their financial obligations, so that any decision made is a prudent business busi-ness decision." Albrecht referred to what he perceived as a "change of direction" for the company, since the board's decision to move its main office was not one of six issues given as directives to him 10 months ago. He named several issues he perceives as significant deterrents deter-rents to a move at this time, including upcoming deregulation. "We've actually reduced rates today," he said. "... somewhere in the neighborhood of $425,000 a year to Garkane's customers." And, "our board has approved a $400,000 refund in capital credits to be made in the first week of December this year. So there's over $800,000 this company com-pany has returned to its membership." mem-bership." The board estimates that a new building, constructed on its 10 acres of property in Hatch, would cost in the neighborhood of $425,000. "Not once," said Albrecht, "have I had a consumer come up to me and say, 'Let's move the office.'" Again referring to the board as the political arm of Garkane and their decision to move as a "political decision," he concluded conclu-ded with, "If they've the board studied this move thoroughly, and they feel it's a good, sound business decision to move the office to Hatch and can show me that in dollars and cents, I'll support them 100 percent," he concluded Garkane employee Stan Chappell Chap-pell added, "Garkane does a lot of business with the postal service and the situation with Hatch down there physically will not handle it will it?" A Garkane secretary responded re-sponded that the Richfield postmaster post-master had told her the Hatch post office would not be able to handle the company's mail, quoting him as saying, "you get more mail in one day than they get in a whole week." Chapell said he was also concerned con-cerned about banking in Pan-guilch Pan-guilch because of potential accidents acci-dents during travel time. Garkane attorney Marcus Taylor told the board potential problems with litigation concerning concern-ing the Cooperative Finance Corporation and Deseret Generation Genera-tion & Transmission could present an obstacle, along with deregulation. deregula-tion. "... I think its premature right now to undertake an office relocation. I just don't think it's the right time," he said. Richfield City representatives chided in with their own words, encouraging Garkane to remain in their city. City Manager Woody Farnsworth said, "... we really hate to see Garkane move out of Richfield ... we serve a lot of your staff, obviously, here in our city." He said, "If there is anything we can do, we can sit down with your folks, about keeping your headquarters in Richfield." Garkane Board Member Terry Griffiths, Orderville, gave the most impassioned rebuttal to Albrecht saying, "... we have excellent employees; I'd hate to have any one of them quit. I would like every one of the employees to transfer to this new office in Hatch." Griffiths praised Albrecht saying to him, "Carl, you're an excellent speaker." And, turning, he added, "That's one of the reasons he is our general manager. He's got talent. He's had time to kind of prepare a little deal there that he wanted to present to us. We've had very little time to prepare to answer back. And if we don't answer back, I feel like we have failed., so I'm going to attempt to answer some of the questions here that have been raised. Griffiths said that if deregulation comes. UP&L's property will have no value, since their consumers will then be able to purchase anywhere they choose and there is no reason to believe that Richfield would necessarily turn to Garkane for power. He said that at the last attempt to move the office from Richfield onto the system, consumers were presented with a "loaded ballot" asking them if they wanted to move the office and have a rate increase. "Nobody wanted to vote for a rate increase," he said. "I'm confident we can build this new office and not have a rate increase," and "give better service with a new office." He said that an earlier study had shown that the present building in Richfield is not safe, does not meet standards for the handicapped, and the parking is too limited. In Hatch, Griffiths said, the general manager would be "where the inventory is," would know "when it's coming, where it's going." "He would be driving up the road with the power poles on it! ..." He would "be on top of maintenance because he would be traveling the roads" and "the consumers would be rubbing shoulders with him every day. "Carl would know when the lights are out ... because he was part of the system," Griffiths said. "I'd like to see the office kind of centrally located in the system," he said, so "that any money that is spent has a chance to flow out back to the same people that are paying the power bill." Referring again to the company's Richfield employees, Griffiths said, ""And I really, really honestly feel sorry for the people who have to go through this turmoil in their personal liyes. It's not the first time that you people have had to face it and it's not going to be the last, even if you defeat this. You're going to have to face this again ... over and over . Why not bite the bullet? Get in a be part of the team. Make us more cost efficient. Griffiths said he believes the new building could be built for lci,s than $425,000. "My consumers those he represents want it on the system," he said. "One last thing," he said, "I think it's the responsibility of our attorney to advise us on legal matters, what is legal, what is not, what is ethical, what is not, but not give his personal opinion on whether it's good to move to Hatch or not. And I have respect for Mr. Taylor; he's a good man, but he works for the board ..." Shortly after, the board entered into executive session for continued discussion on the issue. No additional actions were taken. Garkane board members include Michael Blackburn, president, presi-dent, Bicknell; Terry Griffiths, vice president Orderville; Nolan Button, secretarytreasurer, Kan-ab; Kan-ab; George Blackburn, Fremont; William "Bill" Nelson, Cannon-ville; Cannon-ville; David Skougaard, Duck Creek Village; Marjie Lee Spencer, Spen-cer, Escalante; and M. LaDon Torgerson, Koosharem. |