The Popperville Town Hall

Whistleblowing can be used as a potent creative tool to help your bureaucracy evolve towards a more enlightened organization. Phone: 1-603-209-4206 steamshovel2002@yahoo.com Note: I constantly update my articles. Comments at the bottom of the article are always welcome!!! Mike Mulligan, Hinsdale, NH

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Why isn't Entergy Investing in River Bend: the Direction of Electricity Prices in Louisiana?

Is the new industrialization of Louisiana and backing away with Entery's ownership with the grid...is it draining resources away from the River Bend.

This graph never anticipated the drop in the price of petroleum today. So we got the natural gas miracle and the drop in the price of petroleum. This is national map...I would think the drop would be more severe in Louisiana. I call the drop in the price of electricity as 50% during the last big drop in the price of petroleum.Already since the beginning of the drop in the price of petroleum natural gas from is peak this year has decline 40%?



Any dummy would say with the cheap natural gas...why isn't Entergy building natural gas plants out the ying yang. They would drive down cost of electricity? Are we talking about the fear of stranded assets? The top three suppliers of electricity are natural gas, coal and then nuclear power.

What happens to the demand and price of electricity if the price of petroleum goes down to $30 per barrel?
Pg 310: The Boom and Bust in Louisiana and Oklahoma 
Although the multifaceted debacle in Texas was the major story in the Southwest, the collapse of the energy and real estate markets and the accompanying agricultural problems also had devastating effects on the economies of Louisiana and Oklahoma as well as on the banks in those states. Between 1980 and 1994 there were 70 bank failures in Louisiana. 22.4 percent of the state’s banks. Oklahoma endured 122 bank failures.22.0 percent of its banks.61 During the same period, assets of failed banks at the time of failure amounted to $4.1 billion in Louisiana and $5.8 billion in Oklahoma.

In the mid-1980s, the state economies of Louisiana and Oklahoma (as well as Texas) were five times more dependent on energy production than the nation as a whole.62 In 1986, for example, nearly 40 percent of Louisiana’s state revenues came from oil and natural gas production, and in 1985 depressed energy prices held economic growth to under 1 percent (in Oklahoma as well). In June of that year, Louisiana’s unemployment rate was 11.5 percent, the second-highest in the nation. In addition, residential building permits issued in the state in 1985 declined by more than 25 percent from levels a year earlier.


Is Entergy and the other utilities managing the price or drop of the price of electricity in Louisiana? They are doing all over the rest of the nation and especially in New England.  
Heads up, Entergy customers: Your bill is likely to increase because Louisiana needs more power

by mark ballard|
mballard@theadvocate.com

Dec. 30, 2014

That likely means building power plants for about $1 billion a pop, which the 1 million customers of Entergy Corp.’s Louisiana companies will be expected to pay.

The privately owned utility bought a plant in Arkansas to make electricity, mostly for Louisiana, and a new unit in Westwego will go online by New Year’s Day. Entergy is spending a couple of billion dollars over the next few years to move huge amounts of electricity to where the new manufacturing facilities will be located and also is asking for bids to buy power from elsewhere.

“All that will help, but ultimately we’re going to need to build new generation,” said Phillip R. May, the head of Entergy’s Louisiana operations. “It has to be new steel in the ground to meet all of this new load. … We’re on the front end of a pretty steep curve in growth.”

Attracted largely by cheap natural gas and some of the nation’s lowest utility rates, corporations from around the world are investing about $59.2 billion in Louisiana operations — for things like steel, chemicals, wood pulp, liquid natural gas exports — that are well underway or already completed, mostly along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and in the Lake Charles region. Another $60.1 billion in projects are in the permitting stage.


The boom will be great for the state’s economy and will create thousands of jobs.

But not everyone is happy with Entergy’s plans, which have not been officially submitted, for providing power to all these new operations.

Existing manufacturers are asking if there is a better, cheaper way to make the needed power.

Jennifer Vosburg, who heads Louisiana’s units of NRG Inc. and supplies cooperative utility companies across the state with electricity, suggests looking at a wider array of alternatives. One is lessening the regulatory burdens that keep industries from making electricity to meet their own needs, called cogeneration, rather than have Entergy provide all the power.

“With so many sophisticated companies developing in Louisiana, this is a time to promote industrial cogeneration of electricity on plant sites to meet the industrial-specific needs,” Vosburg said.

Consumer groups are questioning whether residential and commercial customers should be paying at all.

“We support bringing industry back into the United States. We don’t feel it’s fair that residential and commercial customers should have to foot the bill (for power) that will be needed primarily by the large industrial sector,” said Casey DeMoss Roberts, who heads the New Orleans-based consumer advocacy group Alliance for Affordable Energy. “The industrial customers should have a special rider to pay for it.”

Meeting power needs will be the subject of much debate in the coming year, particularly at the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which oversees how much the private utility company can charge customers.

Monthly bills will not be dramatically affected, said May, who is president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, the two companies that service about half the customers in the state. Entergy New Orleans covers that city and is regulated by the City Council rather than the PSC.

It’s a matter of mathematics, May said.

Rates are determined by how much it costs to make and distribute electricity divided by the number of customers using it. May said other utility companies around the country are seeing their sales grow by about 1 percent. Louisiana’s sales are growing at about 3.5 percent, largely driven by the large industrial projects locating here.

“We’re adding a lot of new customers,” May noted, saying that will help keep down the already low prices.

The situation also opens the opportunity for Entergy to build plants using newer, more efficient technology that will keep costs lower in the long run, May argues.

Also in the mix is the fact that some of Entergy’s contracts to buy electricity are nearing their end. Plus, the average age of the fleet of generating plants in Louisiana is about 35 years.

“We have to decide whether it’s more cost-effective to continue to maintain the old plant, build a new plant or enter into a contract to buy power,” May said.

The New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which delivers power to 2.8 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, reports it can make about 22,000 megawatts of electricity. It expects to need to add 5,000 to 7,000 megawatts of electricity during the next five years, largely to supply new industrial projects in Louisiana and Texas and to replace older units. Louisiana alone accounts for 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of that amount.
PSC Commissioner Clyde Holloway, whose district includes Lake Charles, said time is of the essence.

“I’m confident we can handle it, but we have to get started,” he said. “We have to have a plan, and they keep telling us they’ll have a plan, but I haven’t seen it.”

It takes about three years to build a new power plant.

One of the big questions for PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell, of Bossier Parish, is how long the price of natural gas will stay low. Industry is attracted to Louisiana because the cost of natural gas is about a third of what it is in Europe, Asia and South America.

But history has shown how quickly the energy market can change.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the price of natural gas was so high that regulators pressured Entergy to build plants that would be fueled by anything but natural gas. Then came fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method that breaks up underground rock layers to release natural gas. Fracking created an abundant supply of gas, and the price of the commodity dropped four-fold. That could change.

“I need some economists to tell what is going to be happening,” Campbell said.

Entergy looked at sites to build another nuclear power plant, a hugely expensive enterprise that provides customers with very inexpensive power.

But the costs of building natural gas facilities are more predictable than for the more technologically encumbered nuclear plants. And the price of natural gas is now so low, and likely to stay that way for a while, that building a plant that uses any other kind of fuel doesn’t make economic sense, May said.

“They have built dozens of them. They have built this exact plant all over the world,” he said. “You don’t want a lot of construction risks associated with this. You don’t want a lot of technology risks associated with this.”

PSC Chairman
Eric Skrmetta, of Metairie, said he’s heard discussions about the need for new generating plants, perhaps as many as five.

“We’re monitoring it very close,” he said. “We want to make sure there’s a mechanism, that there’s a portion in this transaction that is fairly borne and that Louisiana consumers pay only their fair share.”


Follow Mark Ballard on Twitter, @MarkBallardCNB. For more coverage of government and politics, follow our Politics Blog at http://blogs.theadvocate.com/politicsblog.

You notice the shortage of rail capacity jacks up the price of transportation , coal and electricity...or artificially supports the price of these commodities. Why and how have we created a world of price spikes and artificial shortage. Remember propane, natural gas and electricity shortages and prices spikes last year during the cold snap. A lot of these guys are making a lot money without doing no work what-so-ever? 

Wasn't the rail industry implicated in the propane shortages and issues with petroleum shipments and grain shipment overwhelming the rail capacity.    

Posted December 18, 2014 - 11:51pm 

Cheap oil means higher power bills 


By MARIO PARKER
Bloomberg News

CHICAGO — Electricity costs are poised to reach the highest level since 1999 because railroads are too clogged to deliver enough coal to power plants.

While the United States has the world’s biggest coal reserves, utilities are forecast by the government to end the year with the lowest stockpiles since 2005. With carriers including BNSF Railway jammed with record shipments of oil and grains, Xcel Energy Inc. and other power producers say they can’t get the coal they need.

The rail delays mean utilities haven’t rebuilt inventories that fell to a seven-year low last winter. Power producers filed 10 notices this year warning regulators that stocks were low enough to threaten generation, compared with two filings in 2013. Utilities have been obliged to rely more on natural gas, increasing costs for consumers.

“There’s plenty of coal,” Jim Thompson, a director of coal for IHS, an Englewood, Colorado-based energy and industrial analytics company, said by phone Dec. 2. “The problem is the coal transportation system.”

Utilities got as much as 25 million short tons (22.7 million metric tons) less coal than they needed from mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin this year, Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. producer of the fuel, said in October. Utilities will burn 868.5 million tons in 2014, generating 39 percent of U.S. electricity.

Power companies are on pace to end the year with 129.2 million tons of inventories, 32 percent less than the record 189.5 million tons reached in 2009, U.S. Energy Information Administration data show.

Utilities have used natural gas to preserve coal stocks, even though it’s 22 percent more profitable for a power plant in the Midwest to burn coal, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Average U.S. power costs will rise 1.8 percent to $12.69 per megawatt hour in 2015, the most expensive in records going back to 1999, the EIA said in a report Dec. 9.

The shale oil boom has also sent wages for welders and pipefitters in Louisiana above $100 per hour, causing cost overruns for chemical projects.

The strengthening economy, record shipments from the shale- oil boom and expanding grain crops have overwhelmed the rail network, said Lee Klaskow, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Princeton, New Jersey.

West Texas Intermediate oil has slumped more than 40 percent this year as U.S. production has risen to the highest in more than three decades.

Average rail speeds plunged 6.4 percent in the past year while dwell times, a measure of how long cars sit in a rail yard, increased 8.7 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., had the biggest increase in commodity carload traffic this year, with a gain of more than 22 percent, Bloomberg Intelligence data show. The company has boosted personnel, added tracks and locomotives and sought to unplug bottlenecks, George Duggan, group vice president for coal business, said at a conference Dec. 9.

U.S. coal imports increased 37 percent to 12.2 million tons this year, led by purchases from Colombia, EIA data show.

“The transportation constraints gave utilities a need to diversify supply,” Ted O’Brien, chief executive officer of Doyle Trading Consultants, a Grand Junction, Colorado-based coal analysis company, said by phone Dec. 11. That’s made foreign coal more competitive than U.S.-mined fuel, he said.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has cut generation this year to preserve coal stocks, Ben Jones, the company’s manager of coal origination, said at a conference in New York this month.

“Our main concern has been — can we get the coal we’ve bought into our system,” he said. “We started trucking coal to the plants.”

Xcel Energy’s stockpiles are “significantly low,” Craig Romer, the Minneapolis-based company’s director of fuel supply operations, said by phone Oct. 28.

“Normally in the fall we try to build up those inventories in anticipation of weather events,” he said. “Right now, we’re just not getting the service to build those winter stockpiles.’

Utilities may be forced to navigate low inventories through next year and this ”could create challenges in the summer of 2015,” Alan Haymes, an economist at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at the agency’s monthly meeting in Washington Thursday.

Powder River Basin coal prices increased 5 percent to $12.65 a ton in the past year. They would be even higher if utilities had confidence it could be delivered, according to IHS’s Thompson.

“Some railroads are now saying it will probably be 2016 before we get a full resolution to the problem,” Emily Medine, a principal at Energy Ventures Analysis, an Arlington, Virginia- based energy consultant, said Dec. 9 in New York. “There is pent-up demand. A price spike in PRB could happen depending on the performance of the railroads.”

Why wouldn't you just build a new 2000 MW gas fired electric plant to add the regional grid instead of purchasing a old plant...it is a blocking deal for new entrance. 

How big is it, stranded assets...from the massive decline of the price of natural gas. It the market being flooded with inexpensive natural gas electric plants based on the financing with expensive natural gas.  
Entegra Power seeks prepackaged Chapter 11 reorganization
08/07/2014By Barry Cassell
However, the company has struggled recently as a result of a sharp decline in wholesale electricity prices and the competitive nature of the energy industry in the US. The expansion of natural gas production has had a negative impact on energy prices. New extraction techniques and the discovery of an abundance of fresh shale deposits across the US have helped to drive down wholesale market prices. 


Entergy to buy 1,980 MW Union Power Station


December 9, 2014
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Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced today that its subsidiaries, Entergy Arkansas, Inc., Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. and Entergy Texas, Inc. have signed an agreement to acquire the Union Power Station near El Dorado, Arkansas. The Union Power Station is a highly efficient, natural gas-fired 1,980-megawatt (summer-rated) generating facility. The station is owned by Union Power Partners, L.P., an independent power producer and wholly-owned by Entegra TC LLC.
"Our service territory is at the heart of an industrial renaissance that is built on competitive energy costs, low electricity prices and smart economic growth policies of our state governments," said Leo Denault, Entergy's chairman and chief executive officer. "The acquisition of these highly efficient units at a price favorable to our customers will help us meet the increased demand and be a significant step in the ongoing modernization of our generating fleet."
In the U.S. Energy Information Administration's most recent regional rankings of retail electricity prices, the West South Central Region – which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma – had the lowest industrial rates of any region in the country.
Low electricity prices are one reason that more than 85 projects involving over $65 billion of investment and projected to create tens of thousands of new jobs and the potential addition of approximately 1,700 MW in new industrial load by 2016 have been announced, signed or are under development in Entergy's service area.
The Union Power Station, which entered commercial service in 2003, consists of four combined-cycle gas-fired generating units, or CCGTs, each rated at 495 MW. Under the Asset Purchase Agreement, Entergy Arkansas and Entergy Texas have each agreed to acquire one unit and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana has agreed to acquire two units. Entergy New Orleans will receive 20 percent of the output from the Entergy Gulf States Louisiana units via an at-cost purchase power agreement, subject to City Council of New Orleans approval.
The plant purchase price is $948.0 million ($479/kW), or $237.0 million per unit, subject to adjustments. The purchase price is approximately half the cost to build a comparable new CCGT facility.
The purchase is contingent upon, among other things, obtaining necessary approvals, including acceptable cost recovery, from the various federal and state regulatory authorities and the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust law. The targeted closing date is late 2015.
The total investment associated with this proposed plant acquisition, including the amounts associated with the purchase price, transaction costs, contingency and future investment in the plant and transmission upgrades, was generically included in the previously disclosed preliminary 2015 through 2017 capital plan for Entergy and the affected subsidiaries. In addition, the estimated earnings implications were reflected in the financial outlook of approximately 5 to 7 percent compound annual average net income growth through 2017 (off 2013 base year) for the Utility business.








Posted by Mike Mulligan at 11:30 AM No comments:
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Friday, December 19, 2014

Is Entergy Still Trying To Spin Off Nuclear Plant Dogs?

Dec 20:
If the NRC was a competent regulator, they already vetted the  Entergy ANO limited liability corporation and approved it, why didn't they approve the northern gang of five nuclear plants limited liability corporation without question? Why are they wasting Entergy's and the NRC's money on asking the same question already approved? Is the NRC asking questions to the northern limited liability corporation that they didn't ask of the southern ANO corporation? If the NRC comes up with financial flaws in the gang of five, will they have to withdraw the ANO and other limited liability corporation formula?   
I thought Entergy dropped this sham years ago...why is the NRC still asking questions on it? Has Entergy asked the NRC to revisit this?

The implication is the new limited liability corporation could go bankrupt and the larger corporation wouldn't be required to bail them out.

Here is the NRC approving Arkansas Nuclear One’s new corporate limited liability form. Is it very common. It is interesting; they put into a group numerous plants in this recent request, while ANO is a limited liability of a single plant? 

Order Approving Direct And Indirect Transfers Of Licenses And ApprovingCon forming Amendments

The limited liability corporation would take on lots of debt in order to become disconnected from Entergy and hobbling the new group.  
December 17, 2014

SUBJECT: INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR GENERATING UNIT NOS. 1 AND 2, PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT, VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER STATION, AND BIG ROCK POINT- REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING CHANGE IN CORPORATE FORM OF ENTERGY NUCLEAR HOLDING COMPANY (TAC NOS. MF3218, MF3219, MF3220, AND MF3221)

Dear Mr. McCann:

By letter dated November 19, 2013, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (the licensee), submitted a Notice of Change in Corporate Form of Entergy Nuclear Holding Company.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is reviewing the submittal and has determined that additional information is needed to complete its review. The specific questions are found in the enclosed request for additional information (RAI). Based on our discussions, we understand that a response to the RAI will be provided within approximately 60 days of the date of this letter.
Please contact me at (301) 415-1364, or by e-mail at Douglas.Pickett@nrc.gov, if you have any questions on this issue.

REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ENTERGY NUCLEAR OPERATIONS, INC. BIG ROCK POINT. PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT. INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR GENERATING UNIT NOS. 1 AND 2. AND VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER STATION DOCKET NOS. 50-155. 72-043. 50-255, 72-007, 50-003, 50-247, 72-051' 50-271' 72-059
NOTICE OF CHANGE OF ENTERGY NUCLEAR HOLDING COMPANY THRESHOLD

REVIEW

By letter dated November 19, 2013 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession (ADAMS) No. ML 13343A 170), Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (ENO) provided notice on behalf of Entergy Nuclear Holdings Company (ENHC) regarding the planned conversion of ENHC from a corporation to a limited liability company (LLC). This request for additional information (RAI) identifies information needed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff in connection with its review of the submittal.

RAI #1: Conversion of ENHC to a Limited Liability Company

On November 19, 2013, ENO stated: "Effective on or about December 16, 2013, ENHC will be converted from a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware to a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Delaware."

In a letter dated October 29, 2009, to ENO (ADAMS Accession No. ML092870647), the NRC indicated that the conversion to a limited liability company does not involve a transfer of control pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (1 0 CFR) Section 50.80, "Transfer of licenses," if the conversion does not involve a dissolution of the company or the transfer of ownership.

Regarding ENHC, indicate if the conversion to a Delaware limited liability company will involve dissolution of the company or a transfer of ownership. Provide the citation to the Delaware statute pursuant to which the conversion will take place. In addition, please provide a copy of the ENHC LLC agreement.

RAI #2: Impact on Financial Qualifications of NRC Licensees

On November 19, 2013, ENO stated: " ... there will be no changes regarding the ownership or management of the licensees that ENHC indirectly owns."
Indicate if the conversion to an LLC will impact the financial qualifications of the NRC licensees or in any way modify the financial support or inter-company credit agreements, including those provided by Entergy Global Investments, Inc. or Entergy International Ltd. LLC. Indicate which entity will control Entergy Global Investments, Inc. and Entergy International Ltd. LLC.

This information is needed to verify compliance with 10 CFR 50.80.
This is from River Keeper and the Indian Point Controversy .

FINANCIAL INSECURITY: The Increasing Use of Limited Liability Companies and Multi-Tiered Holding Companies to Own Nuclear PowerPlants
Conclusion
Over the last ten years, the ownership of an increasing number of nuclear power plants has been transferred to a relatively small number of very large corporations. These large corporations have adopted business structures that create separate limited liability subsidiaries for each nuclear plant, and in a number of instances, separate operating and ownership entities that provide additional liability buffers between the nuclear plant and its ultimate owners. The limited liability structures being utilized are effective mechanisms for transferring profits to the parent/owner while avoiding tax payments. They also provide a financial shield for the parent/owner if an accident, equipment failure, safety upgrade, or unusual maintenance need at one particular plant creates a large, unanticipated cost. The parent/owner can walk away, by declaring bankruptcy for that separate entity, without jeopardizing its other nuclear and non-nuclear investments. This report examines the recent trend towards the use of limited liability corporations in the nuclear industry, often as part of multi-tiered holding companies, and identifies numerous concerns related to the use of such business structures.
Posted by Mike Mulligan at 2:15 PM No comments:
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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Hinsdale Police Chief Says His Police Force Is Severely Undermanned ?

I don't care, this whole thing is devaluing the worth of government employees and our police officers. If I was making $15 dollars an hour as a part time police officer I permanently go around town angry with a giant chip on my shoulder. We know there are wannabe cops with a image problem who would do anything in the world to be a police officer...that would be big risk also to the town. I wonder how risk mitigation experts would look at part time police officers?

I can't see how the town doesn't see this as a huge risk. As like a private contractor without a pension and medical, the fair pay would be around $50 an hour. 
"It’s almost unbelievable that they’re getting a trained officer willing to work nights, weekends, and holidays and take the risks they do for what is little more than minimum wage."
-- A. wayne sampson, MASSACHUSETTS CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATION
To avoid costly insurance and pension benefits that full-time police officers receive, many suburban departments are turning to part-time officers as a way to cut costs.  
 
Is Chesterfield and Hinsdale sharing a full time employee...To avoid costly insurance and pension benefits?

How much is the part time police officers in Chesterfield and Hinsdale making? 

-- A. wayne sampson, MASSACHUSETTS CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATIOn
Friday, September 21, 2012

For smaller towns,training part-time officers doesn't always pay off 
By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Police departments in some of the smaller communities west of Worcester are having trouble attracting and keeping qualified part-time police officers. The culprit cited most frequently is hourly wages that are not competitive.
 
Of the towns surveyed, North Brookfield paid its part-timers the least amount, at a rate of $12.86 an hour.
 
“It’s almost unbelievable that they’re getting a trained officer willing to work nights, weekends, and holidays and take the risks they do for what is little more than minimum wage. That’s very disconcerting,” said A. Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
 
“I can see why North Brookfield would have difficulty. Even part-timers must complete reserve or part-time academy training and hold minimum qualifications. Once they have that training, however, there’s no incentive to stay if they can do better in a neighboring town,” Mr. Sampson said.
 
He said a significant trend not just across the state, but nationwide, is officers transferring out, taking better-paying jobs and jobs with better benefits.
See, this is a problem with the ideology of the Reformer. They portray these events in the eyes of the cheap and easy story of officialdom. Generally the Reformer and the Police departments are a mirror image of each other...don't have the resources to fully support their communities.
"The benefits are that you don't have medical (insurance costs), no vacation or sick time, they'd be covered by workers' comp and there's no pension liabilities either," Turano said.
I am just saying...why did the Reformer us this side of the story? Why does the Reformer just give the side of officialdom. Who in our area sticks up for the greater interest of the middle class in our community...to the day to day police middle class officers who are in direct contact with the dirty side underside of the community. Why do they coddle these officials? Who serves the greater interest of our community better, the Reformer or me?
This is exactly the contempt the Reformers shows to their employees. Anything to cut cost and save the newspaper. 
Bottom line, the part timer police officers just dilutes the hard won income of the full time struggling middle class police officers. You just get what you pay for. All this is, is a scam for the selectmen to declare their towns will save money on your tax bill even as it shoots everyone in the town in the foot. This facilitates police force musical chairs....the high turnover of police officers.
 
Here is how a good newspaper reporter struggles to see the big picture...serve his community and our greater good. The Reformer's tack is to serve a personal libertarian ideological agenda of hating and belittling government. At the ends of this ideology, their aims is to belittle and humiliate the middle class in Hinsdale with chintzy 

news articles.  
Fragmented police systems fail citizens 
BY GERALD CROSS
Published: December 14, 2014
The statewide surge in heroin abuse is terrifying and shows no signs of stopping, while at the same time a growing number of municipalities find it harder to fund an adequate level of police coverage. 
That’s one of the takeaways from a series of recent Pennsylvania Economy League civic leadership education events across the state that focused on the devastating heroin epidemic. 
As the highly addictive drug migrates from big cities to small towns and suburban communities, it brings with it heroin-related crime, violence from drug deals gone bad and users turning to theft and burglary to support their habit. Problems spill over to the families of users and the community at large, leading to domestic situations ranging from child neglect to stealing valuables from loved ones and neighbors. Heroin ensnares the richest of the rich and poorest of the poor. 
Against this backdrop is another reality: Many local governments and their police forces are ill equipped to deal with the epidemic. It is becoming increasingly difficult for individual municipalities on their own to fund 24/7 police departments staffed by full-time officers. The result, particularly in borough and township police forces, is fewer officers on patrol, increased overtime costs and more reliance on part-time police to fill in the gaps 
Almost the same size:"Hinsdale has eight full-time officers, including Faulkner, and three part-timers." 
The chief of a NortheastPennsylvania borough, who presented at one of our events, said his force of three full-time and seven part-time officers cannot keep up with the escalating drug problem. It is, he said, an overwhelming task, estimating 90 percent of burglaries, robberies and thefts in his town are linked to drug addiction. 
Northeast Pennsylvania borough: The population was 4,601 at the 2000 census. The median income for a household in the borough was $36,431, and the median income for a family was $43,250. Males had a median income of $33,939 versus $21,921 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $16,132. About 10.0% of families and 13.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.3% of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.
It’s easy to see why many municipalities are turning to lower-cost part-time officers to bridge the police coverage gap. Part-time officers seem like a bargain. Hourly rates are less than for full-timers and there are generally no fringe benefits or long-term pension costs. 
But scratch a little deeper and problems start to surface. 
“Municipalities are looking at it strictly from a cost standpoint, not from a cost effectiveness standpoint,” said longtime police consultant Ron Smeal, an FBI-trained former police chief who has conducted police department operations and management studies for more than 90 Pennsylvania municipalities. 
Part-time officers might be effective in the simple role of watchmen and report takers, Mr. Smeal said, but often lack the time or expertise to handle significant investigations or provide follow-up for complaints. 
Uniforms, vests and other equipment costs for someone who might work only a couple of shifts a month add up. Part-timers generally have less of an investment in the community and may be unfamiliar or less sensitive to the dynamics of the local population.
Municipal liability is a problem, as well. Part-time officers often work two, three or more jobs. Shifts can be back-to-back, raising questions of fatigue that could lead to an injury, auto accident or even a shooting as judgment becomes impaired. According to Mr. Smeal: “It’s a liability issue waiting to happen.” 
The increased use of part-time officers and similar penny-pinching measures serve to hollow out an already uneven level of local police protection across the state that makes us all more vulnerable to crime. Many towns are protected by minuscule police departments of only one or two officers, and 24-hour coverage is an illusion.
Nearby jurisdictions often fail to share information. Numerous municipalities don’t have local police coverage at all, relying on the stretched-thin resources of the state police. 
State policymakers must come to the realization that our fragmented local police system is broken. Reform must occur so that local governments provide the service that citizens expect and deserve. The health, safety and welfare of our communities depend on it.
Is the debts of the new police department building a part of this problem? Why did the town allow that dilapidated old building and the not up to codes shack to house the police department for so many years? Why has the town been so contemptuous  to  our police department over the decades. You got to know the Police chief went to this cheapskate Walmart philosophy in anticipation of the new police building. I am not saying we don't desperately need a new police station, I am saying we are destroying the police department in order to get the new police station. 

Do you get what I am trying to say, poverty and insufficient resources of government and poverty of the people itself, cuts off government to it people...disrupts communication and trust between the government and its people. I got a feeling a high percentage of the people don't respect our police department and the legal system
Who would be one of the best resources to help us set the standards of the police departments...to explain the short comings of the police department and the system they are entrained in? Who could give us a early warning on a decline of a police department. It would be the district court judges and the prosecutors. They see the broad lens with the behaviors of the particular police departments…particularly the prosecutors. Recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island over deaths with black people speak to the reality the courts and the prosecutors are overly dependent on the police departments. If the courts and prosecutors speak to the problems of the police departments, they feel it will undermine the relationship with the police departments and courts. It is a dirty rotten shame the people who know the system the best can’t speak about the shortcomings of the foundation of the legal system and justice in general, directly to the people they serve. I don’t understand why the prosecutor and a judge couldn't come to the local town, say once a year, To report on the police department with a patriotic skeptical and independent eye on the condition of the police department and its direction according to the perspective of the prosecutor or the judge. 

The courts and the police departments are so isolated from their owners in small town America, the isolation of the part time volunteer selectmen town system who don't have the time and resources to keep the system straight. All this isolation from the peoples of a nation with the instruments of justice undermines faith in patriotism and love and respect of government itself. I don’t care how many highly trained police officers a town has, if a town doesn’t love, respect and understand their police force…it put the handcuffs on the whole lot of the police force and locks up the courts in a isolated jail cell itself.
The Dearborn Police Department is looking to hire both full- and part-time police officers.
 
According to the job posting, the minimum qualifications for the part-time position include at least five years experience as a certified police officer and either an associate’s degree in law enforcement, two years of related college courses or a bachelor’s degree or higher in any discipline.

The position would pay $25 per hour up to 28 hours a week.Official college transcripts or a copy of the request to obtain transcripts must be submitted with the application
You just wonder if the police chief elbows the selectmen...give me a cut of the savings in my raise, I know a way to cut the cost of the police department across the board. 

And yes, a significant percentage of our population are angry, feeling hopeless and poor... who would be beyond pleased if they drove the police officers pay to the income they have.          
Part-time cops don't mean big-time savings 
To avoid costly insurance and pension benefits that full-time police officers receive, many suburban departments are turning to part-time officers as a way to cut costs.
 
But the savings may not always pan out.
 
Among 80 suburban police departments throughout six collar counties, nearly a third employ part-time officers in some capacity. That amounts to almost 150 officers used to fill service and funding gaps. Yet, while the practice enables some towns to realize savings by reducing the number of full-time officers, collective bargaining agreements and the cost of staffing part-time posts prevent many from seeing significant savings overall.
 
Village leaders in West Dundee authorized three part-time officers last year at a cost of $18,942. But Police Chief Andrew Wieteska's budget this year calls for $74,100 to be spent on part-timers, while overtime is slated to be unchanged at roughly $150,000. Wieteska says he hopes to shave about 30 percent off that amount by the end of the fiscal year, but the village would still pay more for part-time labor than it will realize in overtime savings.
 
Wieteska believes there are other advantages than big cost savings.
 
"Part-time police fill a niche," he said. "While our ranks declined in recent years due to budget cuts, our call volume did not see an equivalent reduction."
 
Other departments also are moving away from identifying savings as the chief motivating factor for hiring part-timers. 
 
Rolling Meadows officials say their plan to hire part-time police officers is more about operational efficiency than dollars.
A harder story to portray for a insufficient resourced 4th estate with a ideological bent, and I fault  our community members here...is the examples in our communities where these community members don't receive the proper police and government resources. Where do we see this suffering of the people. Where do we see the world through more than one simpleton lens that always confers an advantage to the status quo. The default of the reformer with it limited resources and the staff having poor skills to understand the story, ask the difficult questions to create change in our world...it to bolster the status quo.
How you feel in a overwhelmed police force...if the police force feels pressures where they can't take the time to understand our problems when you need them to.  
Never before has the police chiefs, have they felt so intimidated by the libertarian philosophy of the selectmen in our small town and poverty stricken America. The events of Vernon Vermont speaks to this, where the selectman in a crisis can dissolve a police force to meet the ends of a small group of people supporting their destruction of town government. A select person have the ability to wreck the career of a police chief on a whim. What good police chief wants to work in this heartless environment. On the Hinsdale police force right now, we have a ex-police chief who felt the wrath of a out of control town government.
And I will give you a clue, part time police officers from one police department and then working at another police department speaks to the pressures of these police officers working for Walmart wages in their first job. And they won't be available if a crisis hit their towns. And they might be working in intoxicated condition with working too many hours and the officers not getting enough sleep. 
Just remember, Chesterfield is a different town than Hinsdale. Chesterfield by and large is lot more wealthy than Hinsdale. More collective wealth means less crime!!! You want less crime in your area and and a smaller police force, a better and stronger America, baby it is economic development and everyone having big huge piece of a beloved America.  

Roswell Georgia (population 83,000)thinks it is a dangerous conflict of interest in hiring part time police officer that works in other police departments full time and restricts where they can work. This is basic newspaper reporter research...where is the Reformer in raising these issues. I know how it would pay out if the reformer wrote a difficult article challenging the Hinsdale and Chesterfield police departments. You would never get another cheapy article from these police departments and municipal governments ever again in our area...that is called intimidation.    
The Police Chief Magazine...Roswell, Georgia
Given that budgetary limitations were a factor, the policy was drafted so that applicants must already have obtained their Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council certifications. The return for Roswell was that the department was not paying for the training or for officer salaries while they attended the months of training. Furthermore, allowing only certified peace officers to apply ensured the experience level of candidates would be greater. Finally, the policy stated that PTR officers could not be employed full-time by another law enforcement agency. This was written to minimize conflicts between officers’ fulltime law enforcement employers and the Roswell department.
The policy recognized that PTR police officers would likely be employed full-time at a separate organization. The policy stated that “this primary employment must not be incompatible with their service as a PTR police officer.”2 Additionally, the department realizes each officer’s full-time employment schedule would take priority over service as a Roswell PTR police officer. 
That cheapskatism philosophy is bigger the more wealth you have. Roswell is a very wealthy town and I traveled it roads in a giant cement mixer truck once.
Roswell: According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $73,469, and the median income for a family was $103,698. The average income for households was $106,219 and the average income for families was $123,481. Males had a median income of $72,754 versus $45,979 for females. The per capita income for the city was $40,106. About 3.2% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.6% of those under age 18 and 0.7% of that those age 65 or over.[8]
Hinsdale: The median income for a household in the town was $36,124, and the median income for a family was $43,413. Males had a median income of $31,440 versus $23,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,611. 6.4% of the population and 3.2% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 9.1% are under the age of 18 and 7.2% are 65 or older.
Chesterfield: The median income for a household in the town was $51,351, and the median income for a family was $58,516. Males had a median income of $44,087 versus $26,547 for females. The per capita income for the town was $25,051. About 4.9% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.5% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.
So this is how the police chiefs put the happyland and touristy spin on it...we are maliciously and dangerously undermanned for decades. Because of our resource constraints, this is especially bad in our underfunded courts, our jails, the care of the mentally ill and the drug addicted...the small town rank and file police officers face more incoming fire and dangerous gun conditions than in their wealthier bigger cities. The Police officers not only feel the wrath of their underfunded police force...but all the collective parts of a dysfunctional government above and apart of them. So if you find a resource kink at the bottom end of police force, the death, damage and destruction is going to get amplified all the way through the not properly funded court systems, care of the mentally ill and jails. And poverty is definitely a crime amplifier and the land of our lost souls.
But, it is a matter of survival, you make do with a pittance of a walmart style wage in our area?     

I will make the case these police chiefs make a pretty good income ...they would rather throw the lower level police officers who severely lack resources under the bus than risk their good incomes and careers. Make no mistake, the police departments and the courts are one of the most secrets driven organizations on the planet.

I'd like to see the overtime police officer policy of Hinsdale...how much overtime pay do they get and what are the overtime hour restrictions. I got a feeling they are forced to work a certain amount of straight time, then they bring in the cheap part timers. 

Do they at least get time and a half pay after 40 hours and holiday pay?  You can see how libertarian this model is a town Walmart...training is less, no health benefits or pension for the part timers and I'll bet you they are paid a lot less than full timers. Or are the part timers a lot more cheaper for the town, who economically undermine the full timers? It certainly is survival of the fittest in the jungle of a police department.

What happens when the part timers need to testify at court...do they have to do that on the nickel of their full time job?     
"We should have about 15 officers and so should Chesterfield," he said. Hinsdale has eight full-time officers, including Faulkner, and three part-timers. Chickering said Chesterfield has four full-time officers and has not added one in 14 or 15 years. He said his department utilizes technology to make up for manpower.
Do you see what I am talking about, does the reformer go around asking the citizens if they had any problem with the small town police departments? Asking, how can you make the department better.

I don't believe it for a second making these small town police officials being overwhelmed make for a better police experience. It is just diluting competence.

My answer to the dangerous Mr Drake experience for the police officer... have the resources to interact and disrupt his dangerous behavior before he points a gun at you? I just don't believe for one second these police officials and officers have the freedom to tell us all about their problems.
Soup to nuts: Small-town PDs learn all aspects of investigation
By Domenic Poli
dpoli@reformer.com @dpoli_reformer on Twitter
Posted: 12/17/2014 08:36:52 PM EST0 Comments| Updated: about 13 hours ago
Hinsdale police chief Todd Faulkner and Officer Josh Murray in downtown Hinsdale. (Kayla Rice ... 
HINSDALE, N.H. Duane Chickering worked in the Los Angeles Police Department for several years. And, sometimes, it seems the problems law enforcement officers face there followed him home. 
Chickering, named the chief of the Chesterfield Police Department in July, and Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner recently told the Reformer their towns may exude the charming vibes of small-town America, but both have their share of big-city issues. Crimes that get analyzed by countless specialists within large departments are usually handled from beginning to end at smaller ones.
The difference between me and these two police chiefs is the importance of their department's web site...these statistics should be up on the web pages and updated continuously, and explained to the community. It has been long recognized the Hinsdale Police web site is stuck in the Stone Age. It is common knowledge for years the department has been in an overwhelmed situation, another indicator… The department has absolutely no slack to put crime statistics up on the internet...to properly develop their internet site and bring community communication into the 21st century. Hinsdale with all of government is in the backwaters of communication technological development.
"There's really nothing that we don't do," Chickering said, adding that the LAPD typically has specialists that focus on everything from fingerprints and DNA collection to sewing machine patterns. "What's neat about small-town policing ... is that you learn to investigate from soup to nuts." 
Faulkner said police chiefs in towns like Hinsdale and Chesterfield roll up their sleeves more than would likely be expected. 
Does our chief really think that is what the middle class thinks of him with the Dunkin Donuts? Why can't he portray a accurate image with how he fills days out. It is puzzling why he thinks the good people of Hinsdale think so poorly of him?   
"Right now, if you were to ask, 'What does a chief do?' This is what they'd perceive — you know, we're sitting behind a desk, drinking a cup of Dunkin' Donuts, doing nothing. That's the perception that I think a lot of people have and the reality is we both work the road," Faulkner said in Chickering's office on Nov. 24. "Duane is on call right now — if he gets a call, he's going. I'm the same way. I am regularly out on the street. So, we're known as what's called 'working chiefs.' 
"Not only do we have our administrative duties ... we have a staff that need to make sure is safe and well-trained," he continued. 
The big-city problems small towns face came screaming to the forefront in the past year. Faulkner explained Dean Wright, an officer who works part-time for him and full-time for Chickering, was working in the early morning hours when he was called to a domestic disturbance involving alcohol. When he arrived at the scene, a man named Kirk Drake emerged intoxicated from his home and pointed a shotgun at Wright. 
"That turns into a very quick, volatile situation. Luckily, the officer does not employ deadly force, although he (would have been) completely justified to do so," Faulkner said, adding that Wright used other tactics he learned from his training to diffuse the situation and take Drake into custody. "This case could have gone very badly, very quickly. This case, while it's one case that is going to come to light, it's almost a normal thing that we deal with. 
Cheshire County Attorney D. Chris McLaughlin, who prosecuted Drake, said the Hinsdale resident pleaded guilty to one count of reckless conduct, a Class B felony, on Dec. 5. McLaughlin said the prosecution requested Drake receive 12 months in jail, with six months suspended, but Judge John C. Kissinger sentenced him to 12 months of house arrest with electronic monitoring. McLaughlin said Drake can leave his home for work and medical appointments. He also said Drake, who had no prior criminal record, got three years of probation. 
Another example of big-city crime happened in April 2013. The New Hampshire Attorney General released a report stating Cameron Prior of the Winchester Police Department was justified in using deadly force the previous month against Grafton, N.H., resident Larry Bohannon, who reportedly refused several demands to drop a gun he was holding and put his hands in the air following a car chase after allegedly robbing the Snow & Lear/Newton Business office supplies store in Bellows Falls, Vt.
Prior works full-time for the Winchester Police Department but was on a part-time duty shift with Alstead at the time of the shooting. Prior was cleared in the incident following an investigation and Winchester Police Chief Gary Phillips told the Reformer Prior correctly reacted to the situation and defended himself. 
"These small towns — Hinsdale, Winchester, Chesterfield — we're tiny police departments ... but for us it's the same standard you get anywhere — New York, Chicago," he said. "The only thing is, they have more resources to deal with problems." 
Phillips would not speak specifically about Prior, but said using a weapon takes a toll on an officer. 
"People who go to war deal with the same thing. It's not like you give someone a slice of pizza and they don't like it and you give them another one — it's something that you never forget. It's stays with you," he said. "I respect the heck out of the guys who work for me." 
Chickering said the Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester police departments regularly serve as back-up to one another. In addition, they often call on, or support the Brattleboro, Vt., Police Department. Faulkner said just between Chesterfield and Hinsdale, the two have called for back-up more than 200 times so far this year and his department has responded to 500 disturbance calls involving violent action or the potential for violence. He also told the Reformer, according to FBI statistics, there is a national average of 2.4 police officers per 1,000 people in a community of fewer than 10,000. 
"We should have about 15 officers and so should Chesterfield," he said. Hinsdale has eight full-time officers, including Faulkner, and three part-timers. Chickering said Chesterfield has four full-time officers and has not added one in 14 or 15 years. He said his department utilizes technology to make up for manpower


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