Ameren rates rising, but Farmington has no Homefield edge
By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
FARMINGTON – While Ameren Illinois is raising its prices for electricity, the City of Farmington’s alternative supplier still can’t compete.
Ameren’s announced rate of 11.3 cents per killowatt hour effective June 1 is lower than the rate of 11.89 cents per kWh that the city receives from Homefield Energy of Collinsville.
As a result, Farmington residents in the city’s electric aggregation program are reminded they can opt out of deals with Homefield at any time. To opt out, call 1-866-694-1262 and have your 10-digit Ameren account number available. You can also opt out online at myaccount.homefielde nergy.com/opt-out?utm.
Those who opt out will be automatically enrolled with Ameren or another supplier they choose.
Later this year, Ameren will again adjust its rate for October through May 2027.
“Every penny helps at this point,” Farmington Mayor Kenn Stufflebeam said during the City Council’s meeting on Monday.
Residents are expected to save about $6 per month with Ameren vs. Homefield.
In other business at the 11-minute meeting, the council voted in favor of recommendations stemming from the Farmington CEDC’s May 29 meeting. Approved for grants outside the city’s residential Tax Increment Financing district were Darren and Brenda Sprague for $1,000 for tree removal and Will and Rachel Kenney for $1,000 for door replacement. The only grant in the TIF district was to Tony Severine for $337.50 for tree trimming.
The council also OK’d an ordinance authorizing the sale of surplus city property. To be sold by sealed bid is a 1979 Chevrolet 3500 utility truck that was formerly an Ameren bucket truck but has had the bucket removed and is in good working order, according to Stufflebeam.
“It has an anti-theft device on it called a manual transmission,” Stufflebeam said. “We’re having problems with some of our staff learning to use it.”
Bids for the truck must be received by 4 p.m. on July 3 at the City of Farmington office.
The only other action at the meeting was to authorize the city to purchase road salt from Illinois Central Management Services. CMS can sell salt cheaper than Farmington’s current supplier, Stufflbeam said.
The council heard a thank-you letter from scholarship winner Ella Johnson. The group also learned from Police Chief Chris Darsham that five of the city’s six full-time officers are now certified in Crisis Intervention Training, an educational program designed to teach officers to better handle behavioral health crises.
