When Itta Bena resident Patricia Young heard about the possibility of her city’s electricity being completely shut off, she only had one thought: “Wow.”
On Tuesday, Brandon Presley, the Northern District public service commissioner, announced via Twitter that the town’s wholesale electricity provider will be cutting off service to the municipally owned utility service because of its chronic failure to pay its bills in full.
In a series of tweets, Presley said Itta Bena owes the Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi around $800,000 and has been in arrears since the 1990s. He said the town will lose its supply of electricity from MEAM on Dec. 1.
MEAM did not return messages asking for comment.
After the news came out, Young, a vocal opponent of how the city handles its electric billing, said she finally felt the city could be “getting somewhere” in terms of addressing its energy difficulties.
“I am hopeful that things will change and that the problem will be solved,” she said. “If another company can come in and we can have the prices and billing be less, that would be great.”
Still, Young admits not all her neighbors see this as a silver lining. “Some of the people here in Itta Bena are panicking,” she said. “They are asking, ‘How can this happen?’ or ‘Will the lights really go off?’”
One of these concerned citizens is Christopher Dotson, the owner of Itta Bena’s only Airbnb.
“We are now all in fear of not having power come this December because of the latest plight,” said Dotson. “I’m going to purchase a generator in a few days just to be prepared. A few of my friends say that they will be doing the same thing.”
Presley assured citizens he is determined to work out a solution for the city of about 1,800 residents.
Although the Public Service Commission cannot force any electricity provider to step up and cover the area, Presley said that after talking with energy providers, he believes a solution will be found before power is shut off. “My No. 1 goal is to keep electricity to the people of Itta Bena,” he said.
A public meeting of town officials and representatives of Entergy Mississippi and Delta Electric Power Association is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Leflore County Courthouse.
Presley said he called Itta Bena Mayor J.D. Brasel on Tuesday and had a “straightforward” conversation with him about the problems facing the city. However, he said he felt city officials were “not taking the situation seriously.”
“We would not be in this situation if the city of Itta Bena was handling the city of Itta Bena’s business,” he said.
Earlier this year, Young collected around 300 signatures for a petition requesting an investigation by the State Auditor’s Office into what she claimed were varying charges to the utility’s residential customers.
Last month, Logan Reeves, a spokesman for the state agency, said that the office had received the formal complaint about the electrical billing and that it has been turned over to the auditor’s investigation department.
When asked for an update Thursday, Reeves said in an email: “Our office is aware of the situation and is currently assessing how we may be able to assist the citizens of Itta Bena.”
Another concern is how a shutoff would affect business in the city.
Solon Scott Jr. — owner of Scott Petroleum, one of the biggest companies headquartered in Itta Bena — said that this was surprising but that he had been preparing for it.
“We put out a generator last year just because of the uncertainty,” Scott said.
He said one concern he had, besides just losing power, was the possibility that businesses would leave the already-suffering town.
“I think a lot of these businesses, what is left of the ones here at least, will be moving to Greenwood or somewhere else,” Scott said.
He added that he does not know what the future holds for the city but hopes the issue will get resolved.
Mississippi Valley State University would not be affected by an outage, a spokesman said Thursday.
“According to our facilities manager, the university owns all utilities — electrical, gas and water system — and is separate from Itta Bena, the county and the city of Greenwood,” Donell Maxie, MVSU’s director of communications and marketing, said in an email.
• Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. Twitter: @AdamBakst_GWCW
The original version of this article had an incorrect figure for the population of Itta Bena.
