Trying to understand what MAJOR means.

The Lord Voldemort news article doesn't make sense?

Looks like it's for the light poles @ less than $1/day/pole (?)

We have about 10/100 homes around me.

A $2 million increase over 240,000 homes is $8/home?

SECO Energy Announces Increase in Lighting Rates – SECO Energy

https://secoenergy.com/wp-content/up...ff_Current.pdf

No idea if/what we're paying now?

And I'm probably way off base...

My bad. Poles not pylons.
Below from 'other place.'


Community Development Districts in The Villages will be burning through reserves to pay for huge SECO Energy increases.

The SECO Energy pole rental cost in Community Development District 5 will climb from $60,249 to $435,423 as of Oct. 1 – a 623 percent increase.

“How can SECO Energy have the unmitigated nerve to propose such a ridiculous increase?” asked CDD 5 Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Kadow. “They look at The Villages like a cash cow. They think they can charge anything and we will just pay it.”

Other CDDs are feeling the pain, with the more than $2 million SECO increase to be absorbed over a large swath of The Villages.

“We really need to get after these folks,” said Community Development District 8 Supervisor Duane Johnson.

CDD 8 will see its SECO costs increase from $54,108 to $329,569.

CDD supervisors from The Villages have been invited to a special meeting with SECO representatives on Tuesday at SECO headquarters in Sumterville. The meeting is not open to the public and supervisors who plan to attend the meeting must RSVP to guarantee entry.

SECO representatives had been invited to attend CDD meetings this week in The Villages, but did not attend.

The Villages District Manager Kenny Blocker will hold a closed door meeting Monday with SECO executives.

The CDDs are already deep into planning for the 2024-2025 fiscal budgets. All have agreed they will have to reach into their reserve funding to pay for the SECO increases.

CDD 6 Supervisor Peter Moeller noted that while CDDs can avoid a maintenance assessment hike this time around, residents should not shrug off the pain of the sudden SECO increase. He said there is “shadow” lurking over the financial future of the CDDs.
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I’d just drop rental, tell them to remove polls! Why we have yard lights, flashlights, and headlights. Bet they would reconsider?

Ok, $375,074 spread scross 240,000 homes is a MAJOR increase of $1.56 per home.

I have no dog in the fight. Poster asked for conformation, so I responded.

"Other CCDs are feeling the pain, with the more than $2 million SECO increase to be absorbed over a large swath of The Villages."

Doubt if the poles were part of Infrastructure bond.

CDD 10 is large with 6,600 homes. If CDD5 had 6,000 then the cost per home would be what, about $63? Not a lot overall but a large jump in the maintenance fee.

Your math is off.

The $375,000 increase is for CDD 5 only. Other districts will also see similar increases.

There are 6,399 homes in CDD 5. So that works out to $58.61 per house added to the annual maintenance fee that is on your tax bill.

This alone is annoying, but not hurtful. However, what other increases will we also see in the maintenance budget?

What does the rental fee include? Is the electricity included? If a pole gets knocked down does SECO replace it? Do they service the bulbs or LEDs? Never heard of street pole rental.

Thanks for the clarification.

Seems like a lot of drama over a buck per week per household.

First off, there aren't 240,000 homes in The Villages. So either that number is off, or the entire customer base in AND outside The Villages are all sharing the cost.

Second, it's not all residents of The Villages. People living on my side of the pond have Duke Energy, and our costs are unaffected. Seco doesn't service this side at all.

Third, yes investor-owned utilities are regulated. But SECO is a co-op. The FPSC does not fully regulate co-ops or municipal energy companies.

Yes, you have Duke Energy in your home, not SECO.

But we are not talking about the power in your home. We are talking about the light poles in the streets and parking lots.

I don't know if SECO owns the poles throughout the Villages, or if some other entity owns in some sections. Since all the CDD's seem to be involved, it suggests that SECO has the contract for all the light poles.

I know that SECO replaces any burned out lights on the poles. I think they also maintain any damaged poles as part of the rental contract.

Who pays the electric bill? Is that included?

There are only 6,408 lots in District 5

Thanks for the info.

I read the 240K as all customers but am probably very confused...