Power out for seven days cause uproar for Benton Co. residents

A hastily arranged press conference called by public service commissioner Brandon Presley Thursday dealt with prolonged Holly Springs Utility Department outages.

The press conference held at the Benton County Courthouse drew a number of elected officials and close to two dozen residents.

Holly Springs Mayor Sharon Gipson also spoke at the meeting after Presley’s press conference.

Backed up by Benton County supervisors, sheriff and state representatives and senators, Presley’s main message was that several hundred outages remaining on day seven following the April 12 storm is “unacceptable.”

His second issue was about difficulty in communication with Gipson and HSUD with what he estimated to be about 30 percent of attempts at calls and other means getting a response.

Presley said on day seven, citizens in Benton County are still without power and neither Gipson or HSUD could give him the number of customers still without service.

He cited 86 complaints to his office. Among the complaints, two families who had disabilities, one bedridden, expressed concern.

Presley said there was “a true lack of communication” to customers on when their electricity would be restored.

Northcentral Electric Cooperative representatives told the commissioner they tried to reach out to HSUD to offer help and no one at HSUD or the city responded.

“That type of response to a storm is unacceptable,” Presley said repeatedly. ”No one in Benton County has a voice on the utility department.”

Presley said he is looking at regulatory remedies, citing specific measures to set up a board of commissioners over the utility, or seeking to get HSUD’s certification revoked, and seeking legislative remedies.

“People of Benton County have no representation,” he said. “I am going to talk to the legislature next year (the 2023 session) to make sure Benton County has representation on the utility.”

The commissioner cited reports from residents of the cost to operate generators and reports from others of their frozen foods spoiling due to the long outages. Others needed power to operate their breathing apparatuses.

A 91-year-old resident had to go to a motel.

“Communication has been the big issue,” he repeated. “We know people are struggling when we looked in their eyes.” He said under Mississippi law utilities are required to provide reasonably adequate service, if they have a monopoly status.

“It’s a serious problem not to be able to get the utility manager on the phone,” Presley said.

Presley said his legal staff has been asked what can be done with regard to HSUD’s certificate which was given in 1957.

“If an agency can give a license, they can revoke a license,” he said.

Taxation without representation is at issue, he said, for Benton County residents.

“They have no say so in that operation,” he said.

One option to resolve the issue of representation could be to turn the utility over to a commission to manage the operations of the electric side.

He said problems at HSUD “did not just pop out of the sky” during this administration by the city, but said the responsibility to remedy the problems are on the shoulders of the current mayor and board of aldermen.

Presley presented 31 letters of complaints his office has received from citizens.

The letters included complaints at not getting their calls answered at HSUD.

The commissioner said he sent emails to Gipson, HSUD”s general manager Donald Warren and to the mayor’s assistant. He also spoke to an alderman in Holly Springs who expressed frustration.

Presley stressed problems with unacceptable communication and an unacceptable response by the utility to restore electricity.

“They have to be accountable to us, the legislature and to TVA,” he said. “HSUD is not just serving Holly Springs.”

Issues of adequate inventory such as transformers were not dealt with, Presley said. TVA offered transformers but no truck was available to pick them up, he said.

He said he would have sent his own truck, if asked.

Presley said on day seven when he called the mayor to ask if she needed assistance from other departments, Gipson said, “No.”

Benton County has “zero voice in city hall in Holly Springs,” he said. “That has to be changed. If people in Benton County could elect the Holly Springs aldermen, power would be turned on immediately.

“You don’t get to be a monopoly on public service. It doesn’t work that way. It’s about fairness and making sure we get all the resources we need.”

One Benton County resident said since 1993 it only takes a rain to lose his electricity.

He said when he called, the customer would be told, “We’ll get to you when we get to you.”

Presley said the problem with response did not begin in the last year and four months (after the new administration took over).

The commissioner received as many as 100 complaints about the utility before the storm and 70 complaints as electricity was not restored, he said.

Senator Kathy Chism responded to questions of whether residents could be reimbursed for spoiled food.

She said she talked with state officials to see if there may be mitigation assistance for food and generator expense. If there is proof the utility was negligent, the City of Holly Springs would have to reimburse citizens for their costs, she said.