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Workers move boxes on Friday into the new Duck River Electric Membership Corp. headquarters on Eagle Boulevard. (T-G Photo by John Carney) [Order this photo] |
Duck River Electric Membership Corp. moved administrative offices into its new $2 million headquarters this weekend, but local DREMC customers will continue to pay bills, start or end service, or take care of other business at the main building on Madison Street.
The administrative building, at the corner of Eagle Boulevard and Learning Way, won't be used for customer business and will have only modest signage, said DREMC operations director Michael Watson. DREMC, based in Shelbyville, is a multi-county, member-owned electric cooperative. The existing DREMC building, built in 1964, will serve as the Shelbyville district office, while the new administrative building will serve as the headquarters for the entire DREMC system.
"It's going to be a great facility," said Watson on Friday as crews moved offices into the new building.
The new 10,580-square-foot building, designed by Davis Stokes Collaborative and built by Romach Inc., will take care of space problems. Watson said the Madison Street building "is still a great building -- it's just full." Storage rooms had been pressed into space as offices.
Last year, Watson said the cooperative's membership had tripled since the building first opened.
The new building makes efficient use of DREMC's stock in trade; it has a geothermal heat pump, said Watson, and the walls are built to R45 insulation standards.
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Glad to see my 540 dollar electric bill is being put to good use...
Well, that explains the ever increasing electric bill. I am glad the people who pay to have this new building built will not get a chance to use it or benefit from it.
They continue to throw around this "membership" thing...just what exactly does this "membership" entitle us to? Aside from the honor of paying exorbitant bills, that is. At least we're paying for a nice new building that we, the "members", won't get to use.
I am with you all... I have paid 2 $600.00 light bills and now read that they just moved into a 2 million dollar building. GO FIGURE ON THAT! These bills are crazy. I guess the so called fuel charge of $100.00 should have actually been building fund charge because there is no way it cost $100. and on every DREMC customer's bill.
Lamey . . . the funny thing is that I went through and bought all new compact fluorescent light bulbs last year and also bought a new thermostat which I can set a schedule to so the heating/cooling unit doesn't run as much during the day when I am not there and even lowered the thermostat while I am at home plus I insulated the doors and windows better and make sure and turn off anything I am not using at that moment. Somehow though my electric is far more this year than last and DREMC claims I more electricity than I did last year.
Hmmmm . . .
Thanks for all the comments, I don't feel so bad with my 389.00 bill. Of course last year the highest bill was 239.00. What is really bad is I have rental property setting empty and the bill was 344.00 for one and 157.00 for the other. These are housing with the thermostate setting on 55 and the hot water heater turned OFF. This month was a difficult month with the other property in Rockvale setting empty. I hope all the electic co-ops enjoyed the 967.00 I paid out this month. Glad to see the new building. I thought for a while I was just paying for the TVA directors bonus!
I have a family member that did some remodeling which included a new heat pump, insulation, new windows all the pluses to saving energy. When the cold weather hit he still had a hole in his ceiling and alot of the heat went into the attic. He was not shock at the light bill. Then he did all the necesary repairs, insulation, etc. His light bill didn't go down, only up. Wonder why then, now why now. They should at least have a party room in these new diggs so we can throw a party....we all got s****ed and no sugars. SMACK!
HEY UNION, I'VE BEEN IN THE SAME SITUATION AS YOU.
I WAS AWAY FROM HOME FOR 45 DAYS , THERMOSTAT
SET ON 58 AND HAD 2 BILLS THAT WERE MUCH HIGHER
THAN I THOUGHT THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN. THE PROBLEM
IS THAT THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. THE
#1 PROBLEM WITH OUR AMERICA IS GREED, THE 2ND IS
CEO'S EXTREMELY HIGH SALARIES AND BONUSES.
Quit gripping!!!!!!!! You control your electric bill.If you want HOT water and a warm house keep it turned up.If you want to save,cut everything back.I am thankful for being able to turn on a switch or water faucet.If you want a BILL switch to gas.That should double or triple you current cost.There are many people in this country without a home or heat,and I listen to you complain.Shame on you.
Quit gripping!!!!!!!! You control your electric bill.If you want HOT water and a warm house keep it turned up.If you want to save,cut everything back.I am thankful for being able to turn on a switch or water faucet.If you want a BILL switch to gas.That should double or triple you current cost.There are many people in this country without a home or heat,and I listen to you complain.Shame on you.
-- Posted by mytaxesaremine on Mon, Feb 23, 2009, at 12:55 PM
____________________________________________
No, shame on you! As everyone has stated all the countermeasures we are taking aren't showing results. Personally have our thermostat set to 67 during the day and 65 at night. Got anymore bright ideas intelligent one?
Now I know why bills are so much higher than they've ever been. Bet none of the employees have that problem.
#1 PROBLEM WITH OUR AMERICA IS GREED, THE 2ND IS
CEO'S EXTREMELY HIGH SALARIES AND BONUSES.
-- Posted by Brooklynn on Mon, Feb 23, 2009, at 12:50 PM
____________________________________________
Now Brooklynn, you mean you didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling when the CEO at TVA announced at the latest board meeting he wouldn't take the 1.1 million dollar bonus he took last year and only accept his 1 million dollar salary for this year. Guess he felt guilty being paid 2.1 million last year while all of us working class were paying 70-100 dollars in fuel cost which he tacked on to the 20% rate increase. What a sweet guy!
Hmmmmm, I'd like a 2 million dollar home, but if I forced other people to pay for it like this new building, I would be jailed for robbery. Guess I'll just be happy with my little home and sleep well at night knowing I paid for it by working hard, sticking to a buget and staying out of other peoples pockets. I am really hoping that this new building will make my electric service better. It would be great not to have my lights flash off every few days. Yeah, I'll hold my breath until that happens.
If you want a BILL switch to gas.That should double or triple you current cost.
-- Posted by mytaxesaremine on Mon, Feb 23, 2009, at 12:55 PM
What do you think supplies us our electricity? Coal and natural gas.
That explains my $450 electric bill for the last two months and my thermostat is turned down to 66 and we burn wood in the fireplace and it is cold in my house we have to get dressed to go to bed and yes it is insulated well and a home less than 10 years old. My bill was never even $300 ever before then suddenly it was $450 at least now I know why. Hope it is warm in the new building because our house is not.
Jeez, How many times does it have to be explained. DREMC does not see a DIME of the TVA fuel increase. It goes to....suprise! TVA
For everyone that complains about there electric bills over and over the employees of DREMC and Shelbyville Power also have to pay their own electric bills which are also high!! Get over it...the bills are high either pay them or go without and quit complaining. These people who work at the local companies should get a huge bonus and deserve a new building for having to put up with all of your griping and complaining!!! Would you folks want to listen to your mouths day in and day out complaining about bills...I think not. Anyway they don't make the bills so give them a break!
Well in todays econmy. A 2 million building for offices is a bunch of crap.
What are people going to do when the time comes when they can't afford to pay these bills??????
Is Bedford County going to build a 2 million dollar building to put us all in?????
When a persons light bill almosts triples, thats gone too far.
They get about 60 thousand dollars a month from the hospital for their light bill.Someone is making money some where.
My questions are:
(1) When will it ever stop???
(2) And whats going to happen when the other utilities sees that they will make the same money the light companies are???
(3)When everyone looses their houses and jobs, what will the county do with all of us then????
There has to be someone or some way to put a stop to all of this.
Hope all the people in their new offices are happy. Because one day when all of us can't pay. You all will not have a job!!!!!!!!(Serves ya right))
For everyone that complains about there electric bills over and over the employees of DREMC and Shelbyville Power also have to pay their own electric bills which are also high!! Get over it...the bills are high either pay them or go without and quit complaining. These people who work at the local companies should get a huge bonus and deserve a new building for having to put up with all of your griping and complaining!!! Would you folks want to listen to your mouths day in and day out complaining about bills...I think not. Anyway they don't make the bills so give them a break!
-- Posted by montez016 on Mon, Feb 23, 2009, at 5:11 PM
I'm just guessing that you either work at DREMC or are related to someone that does. Regardless, you are wrong in stating that "they don't make the bills", they are, quite literally, the ones who "make the bills". What we're mainly complaining about is the odd fact that, even though people have made adjustments to their homes that should make them more energy efficient, the bills just keep going up. Add to that the fact that as soon as people start complaining Duck River pulls the old bills from their website so that you can't view an itemization of your old bills, and that makes for an extremely questionable situation.
It's not that we are all griping for no reason. Our bill is usually 230. on avg(no heat or a/c it can be 180)but it has jumped to 400&430 the last 2 months and we have are settings lower than ever. I am more concerned for our elderly neighbors who are on a fixed income. Their retirement or s/s doesn't give them any extra money to pay the increase in power bills. They were just making ends meet prior to the rate hike. It is sad to see them eating tomatoes and toast or a sandwich for a meal because they can not afford to buy groceries and pay the high elec bill. There has to be a cap somewhere. So many people are becoming unemployed and losing their homes and everything just keeps going up more. This is not the time to be raising the price on anything. Hopefully we may see some recovery next year. We will just have to wait and see. It is time to be saying your prayers.
For everyone that complains about there electric bills over and over the employees of DREMC and Shelbyville Power also have to pay their own electric bills which are also high!! Get over it...the bills are high either pay them or go without and quit complaining. These people who work at the local companies should get a huge bonus and deserve a new building for having to put up with all of your griping and complaining!!! Would you folks want to listen to your mouths day in and day out complaining about bills...I think not. Anyway they don't make the bills so give them a break!
-- Posted by montez016 on Mon, Feb 23, 2009, at 5:11 PM
I see you have no sympathy for people who are less fortunate than you. Maybe you should walk in their shoes for a week. They can't turn the heat on enough to get warm, go to bed when the sun goes down as not to use power and put children to bed hungry because they are trying to keep a roof over their heads and lights on!
2 million put back into the community to help fund light bills would have been the way to go. But exec's have to have the best.
I'm sure that this building was planned during times of prosperity and there may well be a need for more space, but since it seems to be a consensus of a lot of ratepayers that their electric bills are way to high and we have surcharges added to our bills that no one can fully explain, I think opening this new building and maybe having a big ribbon cutting would be a great opportunity to announce that DREMC was going to tell TVA that we will no longer pay for their stupid mistakes.
montez016
I am glad to hear that YOU have a job, and are able to pay YOUR electric bill. What about Joe Joe that just got layed off at Shelbyville Recyclin and is only collecting $194.00 per week in unemployment, but still has to pay their electric bill, and gas as they drive around looking for a new job.
Nice building! When can we move in?
well so that is where the DOUBLE bill went to? It is terrible when we keep the thermostate turned down low.. wear sweaters in the house...and it still is more than the house payment.
The old building looked fine to me...what a waste of consumers money..
Electricity bills are high right now for every one including employees of the utilities. So for the people who complain about their electricity bill too every employee of the utility company, they need too think about all the hours of night they leave their families too come restore (YOUR) electricity when (your) power goes out, reguardless of the time or weather conditions. They don't have control of what your bill is, they are just doing their job.
I think that its crazy to have a building that cost this much. You could have taken that money and spent it on something that really needed it like shelters, schools or something that would benefit the county.I believe that everyone should start contacting our congressmen, senators, anyone you can in the government and if we all stand together maybe we can get something done.
We have two units. The thermostat upstairs is set to 66 while the thermostat downstairs fluctuates between 68 and 70 depending on who is in the house (previously both thermostats were set to 72)... Our bill was $460 for December, including the excessive use of Christmas lights, and two occasions where he family over and lights were on all day. For January's bill, our bill was slightly over $450 (less days in the billing cycle). So reducing the temperature drastically and unplugging unused appliances seem to have absolutely NO effect on the bill. When we, the citizens have exhausted every option available to reduce our waste and energy consumption but our bill increases or hardly reduces, what do we do?
I understand the DREMC may not receive "one dime" of this increase, but we the "members" paid for this new building, and we the "members" would like to see the gratification reciprocated.
whats wrong with you people, this building was planned before any of the rate hikes.
Most of you are acting like socialist, and complaining about things that corporations do.
Deal with it and please stop crying about everything.
disgusting posts, most of you have made.
DREMC suffers from the same problem that the TWHNC suffers from. Chronisim (SP?) They are a very closed minded group that are stuck in between the old timers and the newcommers that are locked in a power struggle (Mike Watson vs Blake Butler). The board members and the CEO need to be cleaned out and traded in for some fresh rational thinking. The new building was a case of bad timming, but there is no need to spend 2 million bucks for offices for 10 people. Until change finds its ways through the doors, it will never get any better. If you ever had any dealings with the group of higher ups, you would understand.
Well I have read all the comments about the increase of the electric bills,and the new building cost I have to agree with your complaints because you have hit the nail on the head.Now we all need to go to the next monthly meeting at DREMC and get on the agenda to speak to out elected rep for our county which we live in and let them tell us why they voted to build this new building; DREMC isn't self owned we the members are the ones that own it were you asked to purchase this building. How many of us members have family that has lost their jobs in the last few months probably alot. Well have you noticed the outside contrators that have been hired by DREMC these are replacement workers did you have a say so about hiring these contractors no. Do you think the contractor would hire your family to work with them no just about contractors workforce comes from another city or state other than the DREMC membership counties. We need to as members of DREMC need to be more active in the monthly meeting to help stop the rising cost of our bills by the profit that is made each annual year, we as members can control the salary of our managers and the bonus it is public record for the members. Lets all attend the next monthly meeting and ask questions.