Entergy customers to see bills fall in ’13
A customer with Entergy Arkansas will pay almost 5 percent less for electricity this summer than last summer, the state’s largest utility said Friday.
A customer who pays $100 a month for electricity from Entergy Arkansas will pay $95.25 for the same usage beginning April 1, the firm said. The rate will be effective from April through March next year. Entergy has about 700,000 customers.
Utilities in the state are required to file a “fuel and purchased power cost” adjustment each spring with the Arkansas Public Service Commission. The commission does not allow the state’s utilities to make a profit on the cost of fuel.
Other electric utilities in the state, their number of customers and the charge this summer for a customer who paid $100 a month last summer include:
Southwestern Electric Power Co., about 114,000 customers in western Arkansas, $99.79.
Oklahoma Gas and Electric, about 65,000 customers in the Fort Smith area, $104.
Empire District Electric Co., about 4,300 customers in Northwest Arkansas, $95.
- David Smith
Two dementia-care sites set for state
Iowa-based Life Care Services Inc., along with a group of private investors, is building assisted-living facilities in Fayetteville and Little Rock aimed at people suffering from dementia.
Each of the 59-bed, 43,000-square-foot Clarity Pointe facilities will cost $7 million and employ 100 when at full staff, said Lee Lyles, director of project development for Life Care Services Development.
They serve Alzheimer’s sufferers and those with other forms of dementia or memory loss.
The Fayetteville operation will be at 1967 W.
Truckers Dr., while the Little Rock facility will be at 8401 Ranch Drive.
- John Magsam
272.53 another high for Arkansas Index
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 1.09 to 272.53 Friday, the third-straight all-time high for the index.
Ten stocks advanced and six declined.
Home BancShares and Deltic Timber each rose about 2 percent.
USA Truck dropped 1.8 percent in heavy trading.
For the week, 11 stocks were up and five fell.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services climbed 6.8 percent for the week.
Home BancShares rose 5.9 percent.
Volume for the index was 29.6 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 27.4 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 03/16/2013