Gainesville Regional Utilities’ high electric rates will be a key topic for debate at Thursday’s Gainesville City Commission meeting as the board considers strategies and options for how to return to having competitive electric rates at the city-owned utility.
Newly sworn-in Commissioners Harvey Budd and Charles Goston Sr., who both said on the campaign trail that they’d try to reduce rates if elected, will finally get their chance to weigh in on this issue from the dais during that discussion.
Another item of interest on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting is a possible pilot program that would provide low-income senior citizens with on-demand transportation through a partnership with ElderCare of Alachua County and Uber.
City officials already have met with Uber representatives to discuss the idea, and it appears no other community in the U.S. has implemented this kind of transportation program, according to the agenda. The proposed pilot program would last six months.
The city added an initiative for a bus program specifically for seniors to its project list for the 2014 transportation sales tax initiative at ElderCare’s request, but that referendum wasn’t approved by voters last fall.
For more details on this and other issues that will come up during Thursday’s meeting, check out the agenda.