Arkansas Blog

Wow! NLR needs to just look across the river and get rid of this suck hole.

NLR could have partnered in a deal with Conway to get their power at a much lower rate. They were stubborn--imagine that--and got stuck with the bill. They could learn a thing or two from Conway--like how to not rape their rate payer for hidden taxes.

I have followed this crap from the very beginning years ago and I know it is nothing but criminals taking from the citizens of NLR. This was nothing but a scam from the beginning by people looking to get rich off NLR!

They can say that last sentence again.

No, it won't ever be the same because there is no regulation. Who is there to stop the price gouging banditos?

The sad part about NLR's extreme rise in rates is that it didn?t have to be as bad as it is. The leadership of NLR in general and Mayor Hayes in particular are incapable of meeting the needs of the masses. Hayes is too worried about putting his name on a building and pandering to the baby boomers and the older generations.

Here is what I don't get, the city budget is subsidized by the revenue that the electric company generates, yet we have a higher city tax rate than any city in Pulaski County. The other thing is that when they were trying to get the tax passed to build the stadium and the addition to the "Patrick Henry Hayes Senior Citizen Center" not one word was said about the pending rise in electric rates. After the 1% sales tax was passed they said hmmm now we have to raise electric rates.

Maybe if we had not raised the taxes for the stadium but to meet the city budget demands we could have lessened the blow on the average citizen and business's electric bill. But then there would have been no place to build the statue of Hayes waving to the masses as you walk into the new over budget stadium after you paid $5.00 to park to watch the Travelers lose another game.

I am glad I live on an electric cooperative. They invested in production facilities and are customer owned. The base connection fee has went up once in 20 years. Thanks to Sid McMath who worked to develop cooperatives in AR.

The Major problem with NLR Electric is when they have a major outage due to an ice storm they don't call for outside help. The customers spend weeks in freezing conditions. Entergy calls for resources all over the Country and they have us hooked back in several days instead of several weeks like my friends in NLR went through.

Our most recent electric bill (from First Electric Co-Op, with whom we've never had any problems aside from when they decapitated 14 of our crepe myrtles to within inches of their lives) just arrived, to the tune of $590. This is a bigger home than we're used to, and the bills of course have been higher in the 6 months we've lived here than they were in our smaller house, but that last one was a real gobsmack.

many muni owned utilities are doing quite well. Paragould and Jonesboro continue to provide great service at incredible rates to their citizens. the quality of service and the price of power, along with city owned cable and city owned fiber optic and high speed internet, help keep Paragould growing and in the hunt for new opportunities for its citizens. great leadership is an underestimated commodity.

It's a SAD SAD day for consumers when Entergy is held up as a low-cost provider. My electric bill went from $140 last month to $180 this month. Nice brochure included about how awful it was that Entergy would not be making any profit on my added dollars. 1/3 of the back page of the brochure pointed you to a website you could go to for tips on energy efficiency and how to lower your bill. Yeah. So you're not making any money off my additional cost and you certainly don't want to make any less off me. Oh to be in the loving arms of Conway Corp again!!!

SWEPCO....the bestprivate electrical company in America. We never turn our AC off in the summer. Last bill was $122.00. They are getting ready to build a new plant at Fulton, AR.

Pity the poor people of Sherwood who have to buy power from NLR and in turn subsidize the NLR budget to the tune of several million dollars a year.

Ditto for me, Cato. SWEPCO has always been great!
And aren't we glad we don't live in Prescott for many other reasons?

Louie, I can't believe Prescott, the hometown of Congressman Mike Ross, is not affliliated with SWEPCO.

Hang on.

Us folks in Sherwood don't JUST buy our power from NLR and subsidize the North Little Rock budget, we buy it at a higher surcharged rate than our neighbors in NLR.

For that we get a longer commute home because our NLR friends won't finish Fairway BLVD despite it being four lanes to no where and supposedly an inter-city route on the master plan. Meanwhile the poor schmucks on North Hills BLVD get all the traffic on a road never designed to handle the load.

Love ya NLR!

I can't say I have the same problems that those folks in Prescott have. My electric bill usually ranges from one third to one half of what it was in our older (and smaller) house. Super beefed up insulation and double pane windows are great. Still, after reading about a man in LR who installed solar power panels on his house and enjoys a $30 or so monthly electric bill, I have to say I'm envious.
But what I'd really like to see is a set of solar power panels that could be installed on top of my truck and let me drive by the gas station laughing and waving. Come on, all you technical experts. Stop with the camera phones and music gadgets and all the other stuff my hubby and I read about and ask each other: "What's that?"
Figure out how we can bypass $3 a gallon gas. And yeah, go ahead and knock the stuffing out of the power companies too.

I live in a 4,000 sqaure foot house, keep the thermostats at 77 degrees, and my bill this month was $590.00, up from $463.00 the month before.
What am I doing wrong, Entergy?

PJ, whatever it is, I am doing it too, but with First Electric. Almost the same numbers as you're experiencing, and my house is not as large as yours.

GO SOLAR BABY,

PUT THOSE BABIES ON YOUR ROOF FACING SOUTH, THE ELECTRIC COMPANIES HAVE TO BUY ELEC. BACK FROM YOU!! YOU WIN!!

I live off JFK in North Little Rock. I am in a 3 bedroom apartment and my bills have averaged about $520 a month. This is ridiculous. I can't afford $1500 for 3 months of electricity. I have contacted everyone from NLR to my apartments and no one can pinpoint why it's so high.. they give me the spiel of higher rates but come on now... $520 a month for a 1200sq/f apartment?

I would recommend to EVERYONE to NOT move to North Little Rock. I am going to move out as soon as I can. Unfortunately I just moved here from Chicago.. the rates here make Chicago rates seem practically free.