Wellsburg residents launch petition to expel Alliant Energy

Citing exorbitant prices and an alleged lack of involvement in the community, a group of Wellsburg residents has launched a Change.org petition asking for the removal of Alliant Energy as the town’s gas and electric provider and requesting the services of a new company that “cares and wants to see us grow.”
           
As this issue of The Grundy Register went to press, the petition had gathered 112 signatures (the town’s population is estimated at just under 700), and JR Kennedy, who started it, hopes that the city council will take action at an upcoming meeting. His father, Pat, currently serves as the mayor.
           
“It’s very difficult to work with Alliant. They don’t make it easier. They only make it harder,” JR said.
           
At the heart of the dispute are a trio of grievances, one more general and two specific to Wellsburg: Alliant is in the process of raising its user rates by 25 percent, which company spokespeople say will help to fund the company’s investments in renewable energy. In Wellsburg, they’ve estimated that a project to replace two blocks of city lights on Main Street will cost around $400,000, a figure that Kennedy called “out of our price range.”
           
The third issue revolves around a dispute between Snittjer Grain, a private grain elevator owned and operated by the Kennedys, and Alliant over the use of a gas line the company installed after Snittjer expanded its grain dryer service. And according to Kennedy, all of those factors have contributed to a feeling that the relationship between the city and the energy conglomerate, with corporate offices in Cedar Rapids and Madison, Wisconsin, is beyond repair.
 
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