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April 30, 2004
VEA gains 777 new members
By BREANNE HUBBARD In January, there were 201 new memberships at Valley Electric, with 122 cancellations. February had 217 new memberships and 151 cancellations. There were 284 new memberships in March with 185 cancellations. The total net gain for the year is currently at 244. According to spokesman Joe McCauley, the traffic in the office might be surprising to most, but not to the electric company. "We've always had a lot of churn," he said. The current numbers for this year compared to last year can be deceiving, according to McCauley. For instance, the net gain in January 2003 was 100, but it was one of the busiest months last year. The numbers rang true in March of 2003 with a net gain of only 67. Within a year, the net gain in March spiked 177 points. Valley Electric is on the positive track for membership. The total net gain from last year was 777. In 2002, the total was only 224. With the rise in membership at the electric company and decrease of available land in the valley, general manager Lou Holveck plans on growing with the new business. "We will meet the growth by adding personnel or by using overtime, extending workdays," he said. According to Holveck, the density is increasing. There are more residents moving in to subdivisions, which put more customers on each line instead of building new ones. "We're connecting. That is allowing us to keep up with the challenge," he said. Valley Electric covers Sandy Valley, which Holveck said doesn't have a full staff at this time. When business increases, so will the staff in Sandy Valley. "Just by adding people down there, we will increase our workforce," he said. Although the memberships at Valley Electric are high, McCauley said it's an inaccurate way to count population heads. There are still children and other people living in the household that the electric company never sees. "We don't try to extrapolate population data from that," McCauley said. The Nye County Planning Department, however, does use information provided by the various electric utilities in the county and multiplies the net hookups by 2.37 people. The figures released each quarter are benchmarked to the 2000 census. The last report released by Planning Director Ron Williams pegged Pahrump's population at 29,942 as of Dec. 31, 2003. |
