Citizen comment strikes a chord
County resident Mark Bullock made comments at the April 16 meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
He attended a Public Service Commission hearing in Jackson, Thursday, April 11, he said, where the Holly Springs Utility Department was on the agenda.
“Because it is now investigating the HSUD,” he said, “and over the last year, it is warranted.” He cited constant problems at HSUD including not just with billings, but with outages.
“And yes, the mayor stood firm and said she would try to reduce them (outages), and kudos. She has reduced it by about 20 percent.”
Bullock is administrator of the “Unofficial HSUD Outages Reporting” Facebook group.
“So, that’s good progress,” he said. “Well, now you’ve listened to people with their woes (prior comments in the meeting). And it’s just not one person of the city.”
He pointed to a time when TVA came to the board of aldermen.
He said he learned the day prior to the PSC meeting that HSUD was on the agenda, and that the PSC publishes its agenda on its website once a week.
He said the meetings agenda is posted a month in advance by the PSC.
He said he has been tracking outages and keeping HSUD’s customer base informed.
“Since March 2023 to March 2024, we’ve had 424 outages in HSUD, which is quite sad when you think about it,” he said.
“It is now destroying this area,” Bullock alleged. “Businesses don’t want to come here because they can’t rely on power. That’s why North East and North West sections of the grid is flourishing, because Northcentral (Electric) and Northeast (Electric) have consistent power.
“If Holly Springs could assure companies of that, the situation would change here. The tax base would increase. People are now struggling to sell their homes within this service district. You know, they either take huge losses or they sell them, which is wrong.
“And sooner or later, I know Jim (Smith) has lodged a court case against you guys for his bills. Some of the latest homeowners are going to start doing it because they can’t sell their house.
“It is going to bankrupt the city. If you don’t know what the PSC is doing, I don’t fully agree with it, but it is the only option.”
Bullock said problems with reliability of electric power has been taking place for over 20 years and is not the fault of the mayor and board of aldermen.
“But all we’ve heard constantly from the board and from the elected officials is, “We will work on it. We will work on it. We will work on it,” he said.
“TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) has sat here where I’m sitting right now and have offered you help. And TVPPA (Tennessee Valley Public Power Association) has done a grid assessment.
“They could only view 30 percent of the grid and that was damming for what they could view.
“Now (you say) the people going to the Public Service Commission are wrong, Neil Whaley is wrong, Commissioner Brown is wrong.
“They are doing what they have to do for the people. Okay, for the people.”
Mayor Sharon Gipson, who said people should check facts, said HSUD is having fewer outages lately. She said Bullock was just giving an opinion. She said the City did not receive an invitation to come to the Public Service Commission and didn’t know it was having a hearing.
And she warned anyone “speaking on behalf of the City of Holly Springs.”
“You are treading on legal lines, especially if you are not going to have your facts correct,” Gipson said.
She said the right-of-way crew and a private contractor are working hard and that General Electric is still dealing with the billing problem.
“All the towers are still not up,” she said.
Gipson said she is going on record, “because a lot of misinformation put out.”