Rising utility costs make some choose between food, heat

By Emily Simnitt The Idaho Statesman Statesman file photo Electricity flowing to homes and businesses from this Idaho Power substation on Amity Road may soon cost considerably more. Idaho Power Co. is seeking emergency rate increases of up to 44.5 percent.

Betty Sperry isn't sure how she's going to pay her power bill once the effects of Idaho Power's immediate 24 percent increase kick in.

"It cuts into grocery money," Sperry said. "It's a matter of am I going to have electricity to keep cool or warm, or do I eat?"

Sperry, a senior citizen who lives on South 13th Street, said she's already strapped. Where she once shopped weekly, she now must make do even longer between grocery trips because colder winter temperatures have forced her to turn up the thermostat.

And she's not the only one suffering from sticker shock.

Kitty Kelley is a stay-at-home mom in Caldwell on a tight budget. As with many rural homes, her three-bedroom house is heated by electricity, and a rate increase is only going to make things tighter.

In December, Kelley took a preemptive strike and applied for a 4 percent, five-year loan from the Idaho Department of Water Resources Division of Energy to replace her windows and add insulation to her home.

Even before the pending electricity rate hikes -- with natural gas prices on the rise and talk of California's power crunch -- Kelley and many other Idahoans aren't sitting idly by.

The Energy Division has fielded more than 2,000 calls since the beginning of the year regarding the loan -- that's more than the agency usually gets in an entire year.

And agencies that help low-income people are gearing up to be flooded with more requests.

"For most of us, rates going up is hard, but when you don't have anything to begin with, it's a real struggle," said Susan Rainey, project manager of Homeward Bound, an agency that works to move homeless families into home ownership. "When utilities go up, it really sets the working poor back."

There are programs to help those with lower incomes, but they can't help everyone and they are limited in how much assistance they can give.

Project Share, a cooperative effort between Idaho Power and Salvation Army, gave out $6,600 in assistance in February alone.

But only those with a certain income qualify, and the program is limited to giving $150 per family per year. It also only helps families between October and April.

"This will affect us as it will anyone else," said Susie Klepacki, director of Booth Family Care Center that oversees the program. "It's not going to be budgeted into people's income."

To find out about qualifying for utility assistance, contact the Booth Family Care Center at 343-3571.

For more information about the energy division's low-interest loan for window, insulation and water heater upgrade, call 1-800-334-7283.

The agency offers homeowner loans between $1,000 and $10,000 and business owners up to $100,000 to help conserve energy in their buildings.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010224/LocalNews/83917.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 25, 2001