Questions Remain Following Liberty Utilities Town Hall

TYLER — Liberty Utilities held another town hall meeting for East Texas customers Thursday night. It’s in response to more than 1,000 people protesting a rate increase that would more than triple some customers’ monthly bills. According to KETK, around 100 people attended the meeting for customers who live outside the city limits. After seeing the community fight back, the company asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to stop processing its rate application until further notice or December 31, 2016, whichever comes first.

During the town hall meeting, Liberty Utilities talked about investments the company has made over the past few years, including the expansion of Liberty Woodmark Plant Phase II which has an estimated cost of $3.5 million. The President of Liberty Utilities for Texas and Arizona, Matthew Garlick, said the expected completion date on that project is December of 2016. They also attempted to answer the many questions customers had. Garlick said they will take all comments and questions they received to see what the Public Utility Commission says and then decide how they will proceed forward.

State Representative Matt Schaefer was in attendance and suggested to the company that they come to a meeting better prepared. Many customers were left with answers like “I don’t know.”

“In all fairness, there were a lot of people here,” said Garlick. “We had about 100 people or so and there were a lot of questions coming from different angles, so that’s why we did the comment cards and try to address them and then go back and try to address them and get those out.”

Another meeting for customers inside city limits was scheduled for Friday afternoon at 5:30 at the Hilton Garden Inn.