Commissioners approve new natural gas supplier for eastern Stark

CANTON – Stark County commissioners thought last year they had locked in a natural gas aggregation rate for four years for about 2,000 customers.

The rate for those customers in the county's eastern townships served by Columbia Gas of Ohio was $4.765 per thousand cubic fee of natural gas. That's lower than market rates this week in excess of $7.40 per thousand cubic feet.

But in March, the county's supplier for those in Columbia's service area, Volunteer Energy, went bankrupt. And those roughly 2,000 customers lost that lower rate they may have thought they would have until 2025.

Commissioners voted Wednesday to replace Volunteer with IGS Energy, based in Dublin.

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The county's broker Independent Energy Consultants invited natural gas suppliers to respond with their own quotes to the county's request for proposal for a replacement of Volunteer. The consultants told the commissioners in a teleconference Monday that IGS had the best offer once IGS' own rate to cover transport costs and other costs were added to the market rate.

However, the contract does not begin until the October billing period. And it's unclear what the market rate for natural gas would be then.

IGS is already the supplier for about 40,000 customers in the Dominion East Ohio service territory in Stark County's townships at a four-year rate of $3.29 per thousand cubic feet since last October.

Stark County has a natural gas aggregation program where all township residents who had not chosen their own supplier were automatically enrolled. Residents can opt out of the program without penalty.

The commissioners authorized County Administrator Brant Luther to immediately strike a one-year, two-year or three-year natural gas rate starting in October for those in the Columbia Gas territory during this summer.

"Now begins the process of watching the markets to be able to strike a rate for the year, two years or remaining three years of our program," Luther told the commissioners Wednesday. "Because rates are only good for a short shelf life. We have to be able to strike the price immediately when our consultant feels it's the market timing to do this."

Implementing settlement

Separately, commissioners approved creating a 10-member board that's part of an area known as Region 6. The board will vet applications for opioid treatment and recovery grants from the OneOhio settlement funded by three healthcare supply companies.

The commissioners will appoint two of the members with two appointed by Canton's mayor because Canton is the county's largest city, two other members to be appointed by a majority of the county's other city mayors, and two appointed by a majority of boards of township trustees or the Stark County Township Association. Those eight members will appoint another two members "who have experience in addiction, mental illness and treatment and effected by, and active in, the fight against the opioid crisis."

The board will make recommendations to a statewide board with 29 members, one from Region 6, that would approve or deny grant applications. The statewide board is set to meet for the first time Monday.

Canton's council also Tuesday approved taking part in the creation of the Region 6 board.

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The defendants in the settlement were McKesson Corporation, based in Irving, Texas; Cardinal Health, based in Dublin; and AmeriSource Bergen Corporation of Conshohocken, Pa. The state sued the companies, alleging they had not taken proper measures during the opioid epidemic to ensure their opioid drugs would not be abused. In 2021, the parties reached a settlement.

Under the agreement, the companies would pay a maximum of about $808 million after attorneys' fees. About 55% of the amount would fund grants approved by the statewide board. The state would get 15% with local governments getting the rest. Entities in Stark County could receive $7.33 million to $10.47 million of those funds, according to an estimate. That did not include direct payments to Stark County of up to $3.09 million, Canton of up to $988,000 and other subdivisions in the county to reimburse their costs in responding to the opioid epidemic.

The final amounts for Stark County have not yet been determined, said Luther.

"This committee (for Region 6) is not handing out money in of itself," said Luther. "But it will be screening applications from the community for treatment services. Then if they meet the parameters and this committee decides they're worthy applications ... they're then forwarded to the state foundation. ... It's a lot of red tape (but this vote today) will ensure we're represented at the table."

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County commissioners select new natural gas supplier