Articles by Jonathan Cortez

At the Ellwood City Borough council agenda meeting on Aug. 8, Rob Brough, representing the citizen group “Standing Up to Ellwood Electric,” which has almost 1,200 members, read a letter requesting an informal meeting of citizens and council members to discuss the Ellwood City Electric Department. At the conclusion of the meeting, council president Connie MacDonald met with Brough to set the date, time and place. Because such a meeting would have less than four council members present (the minimum number required to pass legislation), the meeting doesn’t have to open to the public and press. The letter is included…

Earlier this year, the Eric Ryan Corporation, a nationally-known utility auditing company, obtained information from the Borough’s electric department using Pennsylvania’s Right to Know act. At a special town hall meeting on Monday, Borough Manager Bob Villella read an email he received from Keith Venezie, ERC’s CEO. “Based on the information we were provided, we were able to validate that the borough is being billed correctly by the suppliers based on the contracts that were negotiated and executed, the borough is billing the customers (who’s bills we reviewed) correctly based on the current ordinance, and the PPA that is part…

A town hall on the Ellwood Borough Electric Department will be held on Monday, Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. in the borough auditorium. An official from American Municipal Power (AMP) will be present. The electric department has been subject of citizen criticism after bills dramatically increased in July, bringing to the forefront concerns over customer service, billing and the necessity of the department itself. Over 50 visitors attended council’s agenda meeting on July 11 and over 100 at the regular meeting on July 18. A Facebook group titled “Standing Up to Ellwood Electric” has over 1,100 members. Previous articles on…