The small community of Oscarville, located just five miles from Bethel, will be getting a drastically reduced power bill in the next few days. A sweeping effort involving a combination of entities has made a change in the cost of the village's electricity.
Oscarville uses power from the same generators as Bethel, owned and operated by the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), but it has been paying three times as much for power.
“Oh man, most families were paying a lot, like over 100 and sometimes close to 200," said Olga Mesak, secretary of the Oscarville Village Corporation. She's the one who sent out monthly bills for the power the village purchased from AVEC.
Why the change? Up to date metering equipment that allows the village to qualify for the state Power Cost Equalization subsidy.
“The corporation put up 50,000 dollars to do the bulk of this project," Sattler said.
That’s Anna Sattler with AVEC. Other groups in the community contributed as well: GCI, Coastal Villages Region Fund, and the Lower Kuskokwim School District.
“This is all a part of the holistic approach," Sattler said.
Oscarville is part of a pilot project with the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Cold Climate Housing and Research Center that's trying to bring different agencies together to approach a spectrum of issues in the community: problems like water, sewer, energy, and safety.
Olga Mesak, the village official who sends out the power bills, thinks it's working, at least for her household.
“Because I’m a single parent, and most of the living expenses I have get paid paycheck to paycheck. So now maybe I can save a little money," said Olga Mesak.
The idea of what they are calling a "holistic approach" is to see if the village can flourish, despite its small population and remote location, by leveraging the expertise and resources of local agency partners working together.
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