A grassroots community activist group plans to pack the Board of Public Utilities’ budget review meeting Monday morning.
The residents will be asking BPU members to vote no on the BPU budget, according to Louise Lynch, one of the leaders of the group.
The special BPU budget review workshop meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Monday and may continue all day at the BPU administrative offices, 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
The grassroots utility equity group is calling for the BPU to stop utility disconnections, to separate the BPU charges from the Unified Government trash , PILOT, and other service charges on the bills, and several other issues. It held a meeting last week to organize its efforts. (See https://wyandotteonline.com/grassroots-group-calls-for-bpu-changes-on-disconnections-other-issues/)
Close to 100 persons attended last week’s meeting online and in person at the South Branch Library, Lynch said. The group now is known by the name Community Conscience Action Network.
Diversity, equity and access to utilities for everyone in Wyandotte County is the goal of the group, Lynch said.
Ty Gorman, a community activist also working with this group, who also works with the Sierra Club, stated at last week’s meeting that there is a need to close the Nearman coal-burning plant in Kansas City, Kansas. Also he said the BPU and Unified Government need to participate more in the federal infrastructure grant programs available that would allow federal dollars to lower costs here.
The BPU board is not scheduled to vote on the budget at the Dec. 5 meeting, according to the agenda. That vote is scheduled at the Dec. 21 meeting. The Monday, Dec. 5, meeting will review various BPU departments’ budgets.
The public may access the Dec. 5 meeting through the telephone to listen, and if they have access to the internet, they can click on a Zoom meeting to observe the meeting.
To join the Zoom meeting, persons may click on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84523139724.
To join by telephone, call toll-free 1-888-475-4499.
The meeting ID number is 845 2313 9724.
For BPU meeting information, visit https://www.bpu.com/About/MediaNewsReleases/BPUBoardtoReview2023ProposedBudget.asp
To see an earlier story about the grassroots group’s meeting, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/grassroots-group-calls-for-bpu-changes-on-disconnections-other-issues/
The meeting date for the vote has been updated to Dec. 21.