Jamestown BPU members were in attendance at the most recent city council meeting to give an update on the budget and things of note moving into the next year. Screenshot courtesy of the city of Jamestown’s website

As the calendar turns to 2026, the Board of Public Utilities is looking at a potential electric division rate increase, a new fee for yard waste stickers and the rollout of the utilities’ open access fiber network.

BPU officials broached all of those topics during Monday’s City Council meeting. Among those appearing before the council were outgoing BPU General Manager David Leathers, Kris Sellstrom, who will take over for Leathers, and Ellen Ditonto, BPU business development coordinator.

Leathers began by discussing the planned 2026 budgets for each division along with the planned rates for next year. The solid waste division has no planned rate increase.

Wastewater also has no planned 2026 rate increase, and a 10% rate increase for district heat went into effect in November. Water will be seeing a 7.5% rate increase in January. As for the electric division, this division is the only one that Leathers said the BPU board does not approve rate increases for, with Public Service Commission approval needed for the division.

“Our board can approve the direction to go file a rate case at the Public Service Commission, which we did around July 1 of this year,” Leathers said. “So for the electric division, strictly for our base rates, we’re waiting approval from the public service commission on that rate case filing. We think we will get that before the end of December and will have the base rate increase for electric effective January 1 but that’s not given yet.”

Base electric rates are expected to see a just under 10% increase. Leathers noted base electric rates have only seen two increases over the past 16 years, one in August 2010 and the other in March 2016.

Leathers also briefly discussed with the council the BPU division’s schedule of rates, which he said are their rules and regulations. District heat and wastewater are seeing little change in this area, with solid waste seeing some change as well, including a charge for residential yard waste stickers. Some changes have been made for water as well, but nothing Leathers said that is very significant or should be a surprise to customers. Leathers also touched on some concerns regarding the electric division for next year, specifically with some factors such as the state.

There is one anticipated new BPU board member next year, and Leathers said they would like to work on that and with the new council members in January and February.

Deputy General Manager Kris Sellstrom then spoke on the BPU’s fiber project, saying it has been going very well and that the main line installers are done for the winter because of the snow, but splicing will continue on through the winter.

About 1,200 customers have signed up but only about 200 are in areas that are currently ready to be served. Overall though, Sellstrom said the work is going very well with home installations expected to begin in January.

Ellen Ditonto, BPU business development coordinator, spoke on the marketing process that has been going on for the fiber installation.

“One of the things we’ve worked very hard on is to do what we call organic marketing,” Ditonto said. “So you can see that on social media, we’ve got a lot of videos that have been put on along with some shorts, and what we’re doing is it encourages people to look for more information.”

The goal, Ditonto said, is to educate the public on what having an open access fiber network means, including with getting out informational articles. She added that as this information is getting out there they are having more people sign up, and having 1200 signed up already is a good number.

The BPU has also been putting up billboards in strategic places so people coming into the city and into neighboring cities can see that more information is available, and Ditonto said more information is available on the website as well. Two open access fiber companies are currently available on the plan. Sign ups and more information are available on jamestownbpu.com/fiber.

Leathers said before the end of 2026 a sixth division in the BPU will need to be created as well, but that is not urgent as everything is still in the grant process.