Your cooperative serves over 37,000 members. Residential meters account for 95% of this total. Sure, we serve large loads like Crystal Mountain, Great Wolf Lodge, and Turtle Creek, but our “bread and butter” is the average home— it always has been, always will be.
As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, we strive to match our costs with where we get our revenue so that every rate class pays its own way. When you look at your household electric bill, there are only two choices for generating revenue— the availability charge and the energy charge. I’m writing today to prepare you to expect changes in the availability charge next year.
The availability charge, currently set at $18 for residential service, is a fixed amount each month. Its purpose is to cover the cost of everything it takes to have electricity at the flip of a switch. In theory, if there was zero energy used at every residential meter, this fixed charge would be enough to cover expenses at the cooperative. Theory isn’t the same as reality, however.
In the last 20 years, the availability charge has never covered all the fixed costs. A higher-than-necessary energy charge has always had to make up the difference. Why? This answer is easy. I had a plan to increase the availability charge at a higher rate every time we needed a rate increase. We wanted to gradually “ease” into the true cost of this billing component. Well, we just haven’t had enough rate increases over the last 20 years to “ease” anywhere close to the true cost. The slow, gradual approach has not worked.
This challenge has been compounded by a period of rising costs that affect us as much as any other company — our costs for everything from conductor to meters are increasing, and our availability charge needs to increase to cover those fixed costs.
It is time to abandon easy and rip off the band-aid. We are currently finalizing a cost-of-service study and expect to recommend an increase in the availability charge around $10 per month for residential members. There will also be a small decrease in the energy charge as we move fixed costs out of the energy charge and into the availability charge. Residential members aren’t the only ones who will see this change, but the details of how this rate increase looks for each rate class is complex and our accounting team is hard at work to define those details. Of course, we plan to share all of that with you in the magazine and at member meetings in January before changes would go into effect sometime in the spring.
For now, a $10 increase in the availability charge may sound shocking. We are simply updating our rates to reflect our actual costs. Yes, it could have been done long ago. That failed strategy was my recommendation. As I stated previously, it was not successful due to growth in sales and conservative operation of the cooperative over the years that resulted in few rate increases.
As we enter an era of more limited generation capacity and different energy costs for various times of day, you will likely see more incentives to use less electricity or at least to shift your electricity use outside the daily peak period of 5–8 p.m. We have no way of knowing how these future shifts will affect our revenue. Ripping the band-aid off to ensure our availability charge covers true costs will better protect everyone from future shifts in electricity consumption.
Cherryland is already higher,good way to continue to push out the middle class into poverty level.
I would challenge you on the statement that Cherryland is higher. We are considerably lower than our neighboring utility which is much larger than we are. This is a 2.7% or $3 per month increase to the average member AFTER 5 years of some of the highest inflation our country has ever seen. There is no way that $3 per month pushes anyone into poverty.
Your letter says a $10/month increase and your reply to Kari says $3/month. I’m confused. Also, since I supply some Kwh to the co-op each month (excess solar), making more power available to everyone, do I get some of this availability charge as a credit? Seems appropriate.
The availability charge is going up $10 per month. There will be a decrease in the energy charge. Every member needs to look at their own individual situation that is both availability and energy. When this happens, we find the average member using 700 kWh per month. When this member pays the added availability charge and the lower energy charge, it comes to an increase of $3 per month.
Tony – you didn’t answer John’s comments on solar generation. We just operationalized our solar energy platform in late April of 2022 and thus far we have exported 13,526.3 kWh to your grid and consumed a mere 116.6 kWh. Yes, I know it is intermittent and we only produce during the day. However, at night often we can function off of our 97 Kw batteries. We very much appreciate being grid connected. Maybe an added consideration should be analyzed for those of us that are selling to you folks at below wholesale rates with no inflation indexing for 10 years … and purchase from your grid at retail rates? Aren’t we all supposed to be going “green”? Where are the incentives?
My apologies, in the middle of other duties today. I went back and answered him. You are selling us power at the same price as we can buy it at wholesale. This price gets adjusted annually. Your incentive is to offset all your retail usage.
Not sure why you would get some of the availability charge when you have no responsibility for the maintenance, restoration, replacement, etc that the availability charge covers.
I do maintain and replace my solar array at a cost to me. I’m curious about Steve Orr’s array. How did you manage to sell 13 thousand kWh to the grid? You must have a large system
The amount of money I already pay for your service is ridiculous. I could buy my son a nice used car with the amount of money I pay for your service. Out of all my utilities your payment is by far the most expensive. Thanks a lot for the heads up that is even going to be more expensive. It must be nice being a monopoly that gouges it’s customers.
I think you should reserve full judgement until you get your first bill which members should begin receiving in Mid-April. If you use more than 700 kWh per month, you will see a decrease. That all said, if you want a free bill analysis of your usage and what you might have plugged in at your home, please call our office at 231-486-9200.
Thank you for your letter. It is a true reflection of business at work and how hard you have worked for us.
I appreciate your candor and business sense in making this change.
Agreed.
Thank you the heads up. Important every registered voter needs to Vote
Wow. What does a widow on disability do for service when I can’t pay my bill?…..
You need to call our office and have us take a look at your monthly usage. We will be able to tell you approximately what your specific increase will be and give you options on how to manage it.
The cost of everything is rising so I’m not surprised by the increase. We appreciate that we rarely loos our electricity during storms. Your doing a good job.
Tony, that was a well written article. I am a science teacher and I often have to put in a lot of effort to make sure the message gets across clearly. Well I’m not excited about it, I can clearly see and understand it has to be done. Overall, I am very happy with CherryLand Electric And support your needs. Thank you for considering our needs as well. And thank you for doing your best to help keep our cost down too. I do have one question, is it possible for a depressed (poorer) area to have slightly lower costs than an enriched (wealthier) one? Sincerely Conrad 🙂
It is not possible to set rates based on the income level of the area. This means that people in other areas would have to have a higher rate and thus end up subsidizing other members. This is not something we have ever done. What we try to do is keep the increases as low as possible. What we have seen over the years is that lower income areas often use more than the average amount of electricity. There are many reasons for this but the most obvious is that the propane tank runs out of gas while the electric meter always has juice and is not disconnected in the winter. This often causes the low income homes to use much more electricity than the average member. In this new rate increase, people who use more than 700 kWh will see a decrease in their monthly bill. We think this will help the low income member.
The cost of everything is rising so I’m not surprised by the increase. We appreciate that we rarely lose our electricity during storms. Your doing a good job.
Understandable, thanks for the heads up. You are still going to be lower than our previous service provider.
Tony, Please help me get a clearer understanding of these two $ components (availability and usage) by telling us these amounts for the typical household using 700 Kwh per month. Thanks
Availability charge covers everything to serve your home BEFORE you use any energy. The energy charge is the electricity you use during the month. The average home uses 700 kWh. This gives the average member a bill of $109.90 – $28 availability PLUS 700 multiplied by .1170 cents per kwh/energy charge.
Another rise. You also punished people who were home during the day but now let’s just add on more. This is absurd. I don’t believe that you guys were “losing money” in any way, shape, or form and I would challenge you sir to show the proof. Show the documents supporting your claims to get $120 extra from every single costumer each year. You take advantage of the fact that we can’t choose our electric company.
We have the engineering data to support our claims. Your board members have seen it. You are welcome to call me at 231-486-9200 and set up an appointment to go over the study.
I don’t care about “our board memebers” decisions and thoughts. I’m sure they get a hefty discount given their positions. Post the information publicly. Why are you afraid of complete transparency? I should not have to call a number and set up an appointment. I know you don’t value my personal time but I do.
Gotcha. Watch for it in the months to come. Simply giving you a faster option. Moving on. Have a great day.
Nothing should have been posted till you were 100% ready to share all the information.
Disagree. We are 100% ready to share all the information.
Donna, I think you’re being rude. It’s OK for you to be to be upset, but Mr. Anderson does not deserve to be treated this way. Cherryland Electric does a great job of communicating with their members, and there are lots of opportunities to give them your feedback. Do you know how much electricity you use? If it’s 700 kWh, you’ll be paying $3 more per month. The price of everything is going up. It’s not Mr. Anderson’s fault. Please don’t kill the messenger.
Price gouging. I thought $18.00 was high. Especially when your at poverty level and a fixed income of social security being 76 years old. No caring for the people
After dealing with Consumers power and DTE for most of my life, we are very happy and satisfied with the costs and services we get from Cherryland. We know you are doing what is best and necessary for all of us! Thank you!
After dealing with Consumers power and DTE for most of my life, we are very happy and satisfied with the costs and services we get from Cherryland.
I’ve been warning Cherryland customers about this potential charge for several years. It has several effects, and folks need to understand who it affects.
1. Low energy users are most affected. Those who have taken steps to reduce their energy use, install energy efficient appliances, install renewable energy, etc. will see that $10/month ($120/year) disproportionately in their monthly bill.
2. Low income customers will see the same effect. The modular home with low energy use will see av $120/year increase.
3. High energy users will be the beneficiaries. Large businesses, marijuana grow facilities, golf courses, food processing facilities, etc. will see their total energy bills decline substantially – assuming there is a reduction in energy charge. $10/month is nothing when your energy bill is $3,000/month
That said, I must congratulate Cherryland on their reliability. It is the best among all our local utilities. I spend a lot of time talking folks out of expensive battery backup systems and generators if they are on Cherryland. Cherryland is the poster child for rural electric reliability. But the proposed policy is clearly aimed to benefit high energy use customers at the expense of low income and low energy use customers.
Tom, you may be right with the low energy argument. I think you are wrong on the low income argument. Low income often does not mean low energy use based on our experience. The only person who will see $120 per year increase is the person using zero kWh. When you look at 250 kWh per month, the increase is $7.48. When you get to 500 kWh per month, the increase is $4.95. Our average member uses 700 kWh, these people will see an increase of $2.93. Then, when it comes to businesses, you don’t have the facts. We are still working out the increases for commercial customers. My article is solely directed at the 95% of our meters that are residential. Large businesses and grow facilities will not be subsidized by residential and will not see big decreases in their bills, more likely healthy increases. I appreciate the kind words on reliability. We have worked hard to keep the lights on. Every so often, we have to cover those costs. This is one of those times.
Thanks, Tony, Don’t understand your logic because you don’t mention the reduction in energy charge for residential. Also, you don’t mention the “increase” in energy charge for large users. Suggest you create a table of changes where all customers can see effects based on their current usage and who will benefit. I know you will be fair.
And I want to be clear that I appreciate your fast responses and transparency on these issues. We’re all on the same team. (But I still think you will be screwing solar customers!)
BTW Agree on the low income/low usage issue. Modular homes are notorious energy hogs.
Energy numbers are being posted online in December. Charges and graphs just are not suited to this blog. Basically, the energy charge will decrease by a penny. Large user issues are still being worked out and will be addressed next year. Again, 95% of our members are residential. Large users don’t drive our bus. Residential users do. Thus, we are here today. Commercial is coming. Back to residential, it is pretty simply – use zero kWh, pay $10 more per month / use the average of 700 kWh, pay $2.93 more per month / use 2000 kWh, pay $10.20 LESS per month — There is your range from $10 more to $10 less with the average at $2.93
I use around 100kwh average on the 6 month summer period. And 200 kWh on the winter 6 month period on average. I do not find this fair at all why not just charge people a higher rate and get rid of the availability charge. That 3% is not a valid argument for some..
When we charge others a higher energy rate so you can have a low availability charge, you don’t pay your way. Other members subsidize your service. That is not fair and has not been fair in the past. We have been moving this direction for 20 years. We just finally made the last jump. Tom can hook you up with a solar system that could easily do 200 kWh per month and get you off the grid. Solar is well suited for low users like yourself.
Perhaps giving people tools to help mitigate their costs.
What are the actual PEAK times? Monday-Friday and Saturday and Sundays?
When are the best times to do laundry, bake, cook etc. that are not Peak?
Unplug and stop the ghosting?
Turn off computers, electronics and lights, get motion sensors on outdoor lights.
Please do an article on ways to lower usage as opposed to saying.. “just keep using and don’t change and we will just charge more.” Educate the users to become more conservative in the usage of this resource.
Looking forward to the article in the next publication!
That information is coming. A voluntary time of use rate is coming in the near future as well. It will be rolled out separately. Our peak times from May through September are 2pm to 6pm every day. From October through April, the hours will be 5pm to 9pm. I can’t quite promise which month yet. We know that some people want the opportunity to control when and how they use electricity while others do not. We will attempt to serve both these members in 2023. Stay tuned.
I appreciate the advance notice and explanation, the increase is very reasonable, don’t be deflected by critics who seem to think electricity and everything should be free. If u want services, expect to pay for them. Don’t care for Cherryland, get off the grid or move. I came from Downstate and had Consumers, more outages and higher cost. we built new home 5 years ago with in-home generator….it has come on TWICE is all….once for 10 minutes and once for 1-2 hours……we are greatful members😎
We are also appreciative that our power rarely goes out, and if it does, Cherryland is right on top of it. Rate increases are never fun. Thank you for the advanced warning.
Personally, I prefer the balance to be made up from use charges and a move to smart meters that allow for a variable rate based on time of day. That would encourage alignment of lower use during peak times. Also, think about folks who would like to invest in better efficiency.
TOU rates are coming. Members will be given the opportunity to volunteer in the spring. The times blocks will be 2pm to 6pm from May through September and 5pm to 9pm from October through April. Pricing and details will come in a few months.
Tony, this article ignores 2 very important reasons for keeping the availability charge low. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here.
First, low availability charges are part of the rural cooperative philosophy that has served rural communities well for close to 100 years and still has value. Dispersed, low-income users can’t afford to pay their share of electrical availability. Cooperatives spread that cost over a large number of users and recover it with slightly higher energy charges. Poor people can save money this way by keeping their usage low, but still afford to be connected. Higher volume users still benefit from costs being spread out over a large number of users even though they cover a larger proportion of the availably costs. This is a win-win part of the rural electric cooperative philosophy that has always served us well and I don’t see why it should change now.
Second, folding availably costs into energy usage incentivizes energy efficiency. We need to incentivize energy efficiency now more than ever. Your decision seems to ignore this completely.
Personally, I see more justification to reducing availably charges than increasing them. You’re only justification rests on the heartless assumption that you should bill users proportionally for the actual costs of electricity availability. This rewards high energy users and penalizes conservers. What’s next? Are you going to start charging remote farmers more for their electricity because it costs more to maintain their lines than those who live in towns or close to substations? I urge you to reconsider this drift away from the rural cooperative philosophy that has proven beneficial to all of us.
I have been in the electric cooperative business for almost 40 years. Low availability charges have never been part of the rural cooperative philosophy. Fairness to all members has been part of the philosophy. All the coops surrounding Cherryland have made the move to actual availability charges long ago. As I stated in the column, this was our goal but the lack of rate increases in the past 20 years did not allow us to make a gradual transition. It has not been our experience that poor people keep their usage low. That is a myth. Some may accomplish it but most do not. Nationally, co-op members use 1200 kWh per month. At Cherryland, this average is 700 kWh. I am confident that a majority of our low income members use 700 kWh or more. At 700 kWh, these members will pay an increase of $2.93 per month. I think I have done my job in looking out for low income members. Now, your energy efficiency argument is a better one. However, it is also a reason to get the availability charge at actual levels. If the availability charge is rolled into the energy charge and a member conserves energy, those that do not conserve end up paying a bigger subsidy. This isn’t fair. Thus, we are moving to an accurate availability charge and accurate energy charge. Then, when you conserve, there is no subsidy. We are drifting closer to fairness which is at the core of every cooperative philosophy.
I appreciate the transparency…
Consider the alternative folks. No electricity. Give up one cup of Starbucks a month and walla you have your $10
No, the alternative is that commercial customers and residential power hogs help to subsidize everyone else, which is the current model.
And there are plenty of people not drinking any starbucks and still just barely getting by. Cost of everything has gone up significantly recently (including, now, energy) and it’s tough for a lot of people to see yet another cost going up.
Again, the cost to the average member is $2.93 per month. Inflation is much higher. There is a long, long list of items that have increase farther than 2.7% over the past 5 years. All throughout the pandemic, we did not raise our rates. Inflation has been raging for almost 2 years, yet, this is our first rate increase since April 2018. I don’t like costs going up either but remain proud of how low this increase really is. Also, your cooperative has returned $30 million in cash to its members since 2009.
“how this rate increase looks for each rate class ”
Make no mistake about it, this is about lowering the rates for the privileged classes and shifting the costs onto “the little guy.” I have Cherryland for my home and my business and while the availability charge is much higher for my business, the rate is about 12% higher for my house. To make up the increase in the availability charge my usage rate at my house will have to drop by about 12%, that is NOT a “small decrease,” even though it would amount to approximately 1.4¢.
I agree that Cherryland’s reliability has come lightyears from where it once was, a small rainshower would cause a power outage enough to reset the clocks. I had Consumers Energy for electricity at home for about 25 years at home and had no significantly different amount or duration of power outages there than when I had Cherryland at home before that or at my business during the same time. Kudos to Cherryland for improving their reliability.
While I agree, everyone should pay the actual cost for the availability of electricity at their home, don’t lose sight of the real picture
The high usage customers will ALWAYS be serviced first in an outage
The high usage customers put a greater load and therefore a greater strain on the system causing increased need for repairs, upgrades and maintenance.
The high usage customers do NOT have the same cost to the utility as the low usage customer, the cooperative has a much higher cost associated with the supply or “availability” of electricity to the high usage customer, but the relatively low usage customer, the residents are expected to foot the bill.
Think about this, even a 1% decrease in their usage cost or “Energy Charge” will be a huge savings for the high usage customers even with a $10 or even a $50 increase in the “Availability Charge” for the commercial users.
This is all about shifting the cost from the higher usage, high cost, high expense to the coop customers to the vastly greater number, lower usage, lower individual cost consumer.
I completely disagree. This is not shifting the cost from high users to low users aka “the little guy”. It is about every user paying his/her actual costs — nothing more. We have more members at the average of 700 kWh and above than we do below. As I have stated in other responses, low income members are NOT low usage members. We absolutely do NOT look at usage during outages. When the power is out, we work from the largest number out on a line down to the lowest number out on a line. Usage is NEVER in the equation.
Thank you for a well written and informative article. No one likes to see price increases, but your explanation is clear and easy to understand. I’ve been a Cherryland customer for over 30 years and am extremely satisfied with the service provided to me. I also trust the Board. You have a proven track record of being financially responsible while also keeping Cherryland on the top of quality energy providers. Thank you for working so hard for our Co-op.
Well, I see this one struck a nerve. I appreciate your comments and your explanation of costs, and like others I am not thrilled by rising costs when I have a modest income. Mostly, though, I have been happy with Cherryland and at least for now the service has been affordable. Most important for me is to get reliable electricity at a fair price from a company that does what it can to protect our environment, including our air and water.
Thank you – No utility in Michigan has a cleaner portfolio. We are 62% carbon free and climbing higher in the years to come WHILE we deal with the biggest inflationary period in my lifetime. Fair, affordable, reliable and cleaner – we got this.
We have a small plot of land but have not built on it as yet. Thought it prudent to have the electricity available if needed as we occasionally use a teardrop camper while working on the property. In our 3rd year of paying the $18 a month charge which will now be $28. Is there a way to stop service during winter? We have used almost 0 energy in 3 yrs but pay $218 each year for “availability”. Don’t mind paying our fair share, but $338 for “just in case” and no actual service is hard to swallow.
There is no option to connect and disconnect as you see fit. The transformer and lines are there around the clock. The cost to keep them there and use ZERO electricity is $28 per month. Be grateful for the discount that others have paid for over the past years. The one option you have is solar and batteries. Get some panels. Get some batteries. Call us up and we can take out the transformer and the line to your property. You do get actual service. We keep the line energized, maintained, repaired, restored, etc – all for $28 per month. Check out solar and batteries to see if they are cheaper. I think you will find that $28 is a bargain.
Understand that you are tired of being beat-up about the $10 dollar monthly increase. But that was quite the snarky response to a honest comment and question. Be careful not to be cynical. Not everyone is attacking you.
Point taken and understood. My apologies. Sometimes I get in a hurry and “maybe” a snark or two slips out. I’m not perfect. Thanks for calling me on it.
I’m staggered by the amount of anger this announcement has revealed. Cherryland has provided the best and most affordable electric service I’ve ever had residing in 5 states over 50 years. I mourn the absence of appreciation for our community members who work on our behalf in our cooperative and thank Tony for his tireless, patient, and conscientious leadership.
Thank you for the kind words. Rest assured, I get plenty of appreciation. I don’t take the comments as “angry”. I take them as questions to be answered. All of this was anticipated and expected. I’m up for it and the Cherryland team is as well. It’s fair. I can defend fair all day long and into the night. Thanks again.
Thank you for your letter and your transparency. As costs of everything are on the rise, it is generally expected that electric would go up as well. Your employees need to be taken care of so that we can continue to receive quality service that you provide.
Look at rates for other companies. Family members have DTE and are paying twice what we pay per month. We appreciate Cherryland.
I agree with Pete Brockman and Kelly S. and hate to say it but you were right that it should have been increased incrementally a while ago. I am surprised that it is only a $10.00/mo increase after all this time as I thought it may be more. I am not sure why some think this is expensive utility rates though. We moved here from another location in Michigan with another utility and the general rates were higher (max rates are set by Michigan Public Service Comm. at higher rate than Cherryland Electric).
I’ll preface this with I’ll probably see no change in my bill, I use 1200kw/ month. I do think that this hurts the people that invest in solar and wind though. You’re basically holding those people hostage with the higher minimum fee. Lets say they have a home solar system and battery. They are stuck even if they only used power once. I’d like to see a program that doesn’t hurt these groups, maybe an energy credit program for solar/wind/etc homes.
Just my $0.02. Thanks for being transparent in the decision making.
I don’t see it hurting people who invest in solar and wind. They are simply paying the right and fair price to access to the grid. They have enjoyed the subsidy of others for decades. Now, they will pay the true and proper cost for the availability charge. We have treated solar and wind more than fair over the last 20 years. We paid full retail for a long while to encourage the development of solar. When panel prices dropped and the technology became more acceptable, the subsidies were dropped and they now get our avoided cost of wholesale power (which is also fair) for energy placed on the grid. If a home has solar/wind/batteries or any combination, they are definitely not held hostage. They have the ability to go off grid at any point they choose. Next year, finally, we will remove the last subsidy – the availability charge. I can only apologize that we did not do it sooner. That is my fault.
While I am not happy to hear this, those that are complaining should come down to the Southern States and see what pricing is like down here. My Dad’s home is in Northern Michigan and I manage his bills. I’d give ANYTHING to have his energy bill. $10 increase is nothing.
Thank you for your transparency. I imagine this was difficult news to write and share. We have always been thankful for your services and have confidence in Cherryland during times of bad weather, storms, outages, etc. Thank you for always being a top-notch. provider.
Appreciate the good service and We couldn’t afford a good used car with what our total bill is,
let alone for one of our kids. He must have left his space heater on.
Well, I often tell people to leave a light on for me. You get extra credit (and a bigger patronage refund one day) for leaving on a space heater.
Thanks for the heads up. Good professional letter to customers. Your prompt service is appreciated
i guess its time to look into a generator as my power randomly goes off i expect it during storms but i get messages texted to me on calm sunny days about power outages this happens at very least monthly and i already pay an extreme amount compared to other places i have lived with same electrical items, just not worth it
We will look into your outage history. This is not a normal situation. Stay tuned.
John – Here is the recent outage/blink history on your account: August 7, 2022 – one blink; June 20, 2022 – maintenance outage for 34 minutes; June 20, 2022 – one blink (prior to maintenance outage); December 16, 2021 – tree on line caused 73 minute outage; June 24, 2021 – tree on the line caused a 48 minute outage. So, 3 outages and 2 blinks over the past 17 months — I can’t recommend a generator with that history but the choice is certainly yours.
Tony, as we move toward a higher use electric future, should co-operatives look at building electricity generation capacity beyond wind and solar. It seems every time I read the energy news that generating capacity is being retired.
What would it take to add a natural gas powered powerplant in our region and would the investment sense if the life of the plant is 25-30 years?
Our power supplier, Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, did build a 400 MW gas plant several years ago near Gaylord, Michigan. It is the only generation that has been built north of Highway 10 in the past decade. It has been a very good investment and all forecasts expect it to pay off for another 25 – 30 years. At our size, it probably doesn’t make sense to build another one (too many eggs in one basket). Wolverine has proposed a transmission line across the lake to Wisconsin. They feel like this is the best long term plan for Michigan. After that, they are looking at utility scale solar as they try to build a balanced portfolio that is affordable, reliable and clean.
Fact is this current inflation is more corporate greed. It has caused everything to cost more. Not cherryland’s greed. I’m sure they are just trying to cover their costs. It’s rampant in our system. Remember that money is the root of all evil. Until we change the system at large the prices for everything will keep increasing. In the words of our last president,”Very Sad”. ☹️ I would like to add that when I signed up with cherry land they charged me more as a seasonal resident. When I asked why I was told that unlike Detroit they didn’t have a customer every 50 feet. My next question was did my rate go down whenever they got a new customer? Yeah right. That practice was eventually found to be unacceptable. Except for that the service has been as advertised.
What you really mean is ripping off the people. It’s what you do best.Non profit my ass.