By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
LAPEL — Natural gas utility customers in the town of Lapel will see reduced bills.
At the February Lapel Town Council meeting, the council announced a settlement from a class action lawsuit that the town was involved in over the cost of the town’s natural gas.
The settlement awarded the town $565,418 to be distributed to current gas utility customers in Lapel.
The lawsuit stemmed from the price the town was paying to have natural gas transmitted to Lapel.
According to town council President Chad Blake, the town gets its gas from a company in Texas through a pipeline shared with other gas companies.
Lapel, and other small companies, were paying the same amount as big gas companies such as Citizens Energy Group in Indianapolis.
“If 80% of that pipeline was gas going to Citizens and 1 percent was gas coming to us, they paid the same rate that we paid, which caused an increase in the cost of gas in Lapel,” Blake said.
The settlement amount is planned to be distributed over the course of either one year or two years, with the recommendation to be over a two-year period.
The reason for the two-year recommendation is because gas prices were increased over a two-year period, and giving the money back over two years would prevent drastic bill changes.
“It’s suggested over two years instead of one because if you did it over one it would be a drastic drop and then a drastic increase at the end of the year,” Clerk-Treasurer Teresa Retherford said.
The town council was reviewing the settlement requirements and plans to bring the discussion back up at its next regular meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. March 21 at Lapel Lions Club, 329 S. Main St.
