Westminster leaders get an earful!

Inside a small meeting room at Westminster City Hall, the city’s two top elected officials received the complaints from a disgruntled segment of the citizenry.  During a public hearing, those residents expressed their displeasure over higher electric power bills.  According to a couple of examples, the electric bills have run as high as $600 dollars a month.  At yesterday’s hearing, Mayor Rick McCormick announced the city is applying for a $100 thousand dollar grant to help pay to replace inefficient electric system transformers.  According to the mayor, the new transformers will put a stop to electricity “leakage” which causes the city to pay more for its wholesale supply.  The unhappy residents told Mayor McCormick and Mayor Pro-tem Bill Brockington they hope and expect the project will mean lower bills on the retail side.  At the start yesterday, Theresa Bryson criticized the city for a lack of communications, saying insufficient public notice was given to yesterday’s hearing.  Bryson complained that a 4 o’clock start to the public hearing and 5:30 starts to city council meetings are inconvenient times for the working public.  Bannister promised Bryson he will ask city council to hold its meetings later at night.