By Kyle Roberts
Ruston residents will be given the chance to vote on allowing the city to join the Louisiana Energy and Power Authority (LEPA) in the upcoming November election.
LEPA Membership will allow Ruston to join a group with 19 other cities to cooperate during any type of disaster or massive outage, along with sharing resources and offering mutual aid, which would be of no cost to the residents of Ruston.
“This would be a good thing for our city,” Ruston mayor Ronny Walker said. “We would go from basically being an island by ourselves to where we are with 19 other cities. It gives us an opportunity to call on them for help if we have a disaster. It also gives up an opportunity to share equipment; for instance, transformers are really hard to find right now. We need a certain size, and if one of the other cities has one, we can swap out until ours comes in.
“We’re much more effective and powerful with 20 cities joining together than we are by ourselves.”
Ruston benefit from Localized Multual Aid with LEPA and other LEPA member cities through the state of Louisiana, which includes distribution resources and dispatching lineworkers.
Other benefits would include cost-effective 4-yard Lineman Apprentice Training Program, free quarterly lineworker safety traning and access to electric industry workshops and conferences.
The current LEPA membership consists of Abbeville, Alexandria, Erath, Gueydan, Houma, Jonesville, Kaplan, Lafayette, Minden, Morgan City, Natchitoches, New Roads, Plaquemine, Rayne, St. Martinville, Vidalia, Vinton, Welsh and Winnfield.
The vote will take place on Saturday, November 18.
