Owensboro Municipal Utilities is looking into offering higher speed for their internet services. By doing so they would increase the bandwidth, the change will not change the rate at which the customers are paying, instead, they will just be seeing the increase.
“[It] is a minimal impact to revenue overall. But I certainly believe it’s very important from a retention standpoint and will have financial benefits to us in the long run to do this,” Director of Telecommunications Chris Poynter said.
OMU had their annual external audit which revealed the electric system added $2.5 million and $620,000 from the water systems to the net income.
Along with the income changes, the auditors found that the total operating expenses decreased by about $29.5 million.
As it pertains to workers and employees at OMU, the board recommended a 4% increase in the premiums for the premium and Health Savings Account plan for the calendar year 2022. They also switched their pharmacy provider from Express Scripts to True Scripts.
True Scripts provides identical coverage for those under it.
The annual communications breakdown showed that OMU was increasing in social media growth, app and text messaging growth which lead to a 92% overall satisfaction rating for the Fiscal Year 2021.
In the annual telecommunications breakdown, they found that in residential internet they heavy a steady increase throughout the year as well. With about 110 installations during July 2021, OMU saw a record-breaking increase.
“July was actually one of our most active months ever, as far as installations go,” Poynter said.
In the general manager’s report, General Manager Kevin Frizzell said that August was hotter than the 20 year average for that month. Because so, the billed retail sales were 1.3% higher than the budget for the month. Water sales were also up 4.9% above budget for the month.
