Falmouth candidates talk utilities: Shannon Johnson

    There will be someone who wants to take credit for getting things changed and utilities is a big one.  It sounds great during a campaign. I get it.  
    2018 was when I first heard discussion about outsourcing our utilities and trash. My first thought as customer was how I like having one bill for everything. I like the one stop shop. Additionally, I remember being out in the county where my electric was so unaffordable that I could not survive as a divorced mother.  If there was an outage, it took hours or even days to get it back on. Here, we don’t seem to have that problem. Our maintenance team is quick to respond and get the job done. I think that says a lot. I have recently compared rates with customers from different regions in the state. I wanted to know if it would really be that different for us as customers if we outsourced.  I am satisfied with our rates here. If we outsource, our rates would not be what they are. Keeping utilities here is also more sustainable for the city than relying on bigger businesses.  We should not let go of that. There are other areas here that we should concentrate on, in my opinion, to improve our city, but with regard to utilities, we could look at perhaps upgrading electric meters and updating software used to read them, or better lighting on the streets so people feel safe to walk at night for example.