The City of Owensboro is looking at changing their natural gas franchise agreement in order to boost their economic development fund.
The City’s previous 10-year agreement with Atmos Energy to provide natural gas in city limits ended in May.
Now, the City is looking to bid out a 20-year agreement — though City Manager Nate Pagan said that Atmos would be the only reasonable bidder because they own all the gas infrastructure in Owensboro. Pagan said the City is required to satisfy the state requirements of bidding out the agreement.
The new agreement would also require the franchise to pay 3% of its gross revenues to the City. That’s up from 2% in the previous agreement.
Of that new figure, 1% would go directly to the City’s general fund while the remaining 2% would go to the economic development Fund. Previously, 1% of Atmos’ gross revenues went to each the general and economic funds.
Mayor Tom Watson said he “wasn’t really (in favor of) this increase since Paducah and Bowling Green are lower than us now, but the 20-year deal made it more palatable.”
Because it was the first reading of an ordinance, no action was taken Tuesday. The second reading is expected to take place during a City Commission meeting later this month.
