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1 DRIGGS, IDAHO, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1997, 6:00 P. M.
2
3
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Good evening, ladies
5 and gentlemen. This hearing will now be in order. This
6 is the time and place set by the Idaho Public Utilities
7 Commission for a hearing in Case No. GNR-T-97-8, known as
8 in the matter of the petition from residents of Teton
9 County requesting extended area service to the greater
10 Idaho Falls area.
11 My name is Dennis Hansen and I'm a member
12 of the Commission. I'll be Chairing this hearing this
13 evening. At my right is Commissioner Ralph Nelson and we
14 will be excusing Commissioner Marsha Smith this evening.
15 She is unable to be with us. The three of us make up the
16 entire Commission.
17 First of all, before we get started this
18 evening, I'd like to take the appearances of the parties
19 that are involved in this case and we'll start with you,
20 Mr. Ward.
21 MR. WARD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My
22 name is Conley Ward. I'm an attorney for Teton Telecom.
23 With me on my left is the president of Teton Telecom,
24 Mr. Allen Hoopes, who will make a statement, and on my
25 right is the vice president of Teton Telecom, Ron McCue,
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1 and also with us is Mr. Ray Hendershot who is a cost
2 consultant for the company.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, we'll now go to
4 U S WEST.
5 MS. HOBSON: Good evening. I'm Mary
6 Hobson. I'm the attorney for U S WEST Communications.
7 Tonight with me is Mr. John Souba from the company who
8 will be making a statement on behalf of U S WEST.
9 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, and now the
10 Staff.
11 MR. HOWELL: Mr. Chairman, I'm Don Howell.
12 I'm with the Deputy Attorney General's office
13 representing the Staff tonight.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, before we get
15 started this evening, and the purpose of this hearing is
16 to hear from you people and to get your statements and
17 testimony on record to help us make the decision here,
18 before we start, though, this evening, we follow a
19 judicial-type hearing which doesn't give you the
20 opportunity to ask questions, only to make a statement.
21 We will take a break and at that time if you have
22 questions the different parties will be available to
23 answer your questions or at the end of the hearing, but
24 to kind of get you a little better acquainted with just
25 where we're at, I've asked each one of the parties to
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1 briefly state their position of where they're at in this
2 particular case and so we'll start with you, Mr. Hoopes.
3 MR. HOOPES: Yes, my name is Allen Hoopes,
4 president of Teton Telecom and I'd like to start out by
5 saying that we support the calling area, that it be
6 expanded to include both the Idaho Falls and the
7 Pocatello calling area, similar to U S WEST's. We feel
8 that it will be a good thing for the community, that the
9 community will benefit from it. The company, as under
10 Idaho law, this is revenue neutral to the company whether
11 the EAS area is implemented or not and we feel it will be
12 a good thing for the community, so we support the
13 implementation of that calling area.
14 A couple of things I'd just like to briefly
15 mention that don't necessarily pertain to EAS. Well,
16 actually, I'd like to talk about which options we support
17 and then I'll mention those. The option that we're
18 supporting in this case, there are three options, option
19 one is a levelized business and residential rate of
20 $17.51. Now, that is the total rate that you would pay,
21 including whatever you're paying today. That's not an
22 additive to your existing service. It would be $17.51
23 for your base local rate, including whatever you're
24 paying today for that rate. That would exclude some zone
25 charges. There are some zone charges for those out of
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1 town that would change that rate slightly.
2 The other option is option two which would
3 be a residential rate of 17.51 and a business rate of
4 36.57. Now, these rates are derived by using the 125
5 percent of the statewide average residential and business
6 rate and option one that I mentioned earlier, the 17.51,
7 that is 125 percent of the statewide residential rate.
8 Now, what we're asking for on option one, as I said, is a
9 levelized business and residential rate. We don't want
10 to create -- we'd like to not have a disparity between
11 business and residence.
12 Because there is growing competition in the
13 telecom market, we'd like to see a single rate between
14 residence and business, so that's the option that we're
15 supporting, and we're seeing that there is a lot of
16 difficulty in differentiating between residence and
17 business. As our society changes, there are a lot of
18 businesses out of the home and how you determine what is
19 a store front business and a home business, it's getting
20 very hard to determine that and the market is moving more
21 towards levelized rates.
22 The third option that we offered in our
23 testimony would be a residential rate of $20.38 and a
24 business rate of 26.48 and basically what we're doing is
25 we are moving the residential or the business rate the
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1 same percentage as the residential rate is moving in that
2 option.
3 The other thing that I would just like to
4 mention in closing is that there have been a few problems
5 in the transition from U S WEST to Teton Telecom. There
6 have been some billing problems, particularly with AT&T,
7 getting information from them and having them know who we
8 are as a company. There have been other carriers that we
9 have had trouble with getting that information, but we
10 are trying to work those out. If you have a problem with
11 your billing, we would encourage you to come in and we
12 can sit down and work that out. Don't sit home and stew
13 about it and get upset and feel like your problem is not
14 being addressed.
15 We have a local business office. Since we
16 took over, we've employed nine individuals in the
17 community and we have a office here. We are a real
18 person that you can talk to and you can come and talk to
19 us and we would love to sit down and work out any problem
20 you might have.
21 Anyway, in that transition, as I said, the
22 other thing that also occurred in that transition was
23 that in U S WEST's billing system, there were various
24 inaccuracies in the rates that were being charged to
25 different customers. Some customers were in the wrong
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1 zones, some customers were being charged the wrong tax
2 rate, a Wyoming tax rate versus an Idaho, which it's
3 three percent in Wyoming, it's five percent in Idaho, so
4 when some of your bills came out, there was a difference
5 in the rate that you were seeing when U S WEST was
6 operating in the area, so a lot of people perceive those
7 as rate increases. What they were is basically
8 adjustments when we actually looked at the tariff with
9 respect to those rates.
10 Anyway, in closing, I would just encourage
11 you to come talk to us about those and want you know that
12 we support the calling area and we encourage you to
13 testify tonight in support of it. Thank you.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We'll ask U S WEST if
15 they'll respond.
16 MR. SOUBA: Thank you, Commissioner. Can
17 you hear me? Good evening and thank you for coming out
18 tonight. I'm John Souba with U S WEST Communications for
19 those of you who were not here when the original
20 introductions were done. U S WEST is the company that
21 provides service, as you know, in the Idaho
22 Falls/Pocatello local calling region and this case is all
23 about Teton and Silver Star exchanges joining that local
24 calling region and I'd like to make a brief statement.
25 I have left a yellow one-page position
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1 statement on the table that you can grab on the way out.
2 I do have some more on the front table as well and I will
3 just paraphrase a small piece of that. If the Idaho
4 Public Utilities Commission determines there is
5 sufficient community of interest to grant expanded local
6 calling in this case, U S WEST recommends that the Idaho
7 communities served by Silver Star and Teton who have
8 petitioned the Commission in this case be made part of
9 the eastern Idaho local calling area.
10 This regional local calling area includes
11 American Falls, Bancroft, Blackfoot, Dayton, Downey,
12 Firth, Franklin, Grace, Idaho Falls, Inkom, Lava Hot
13 Springs, Lewisville, McCammon, Menan, Montpelier,
14 Pocatello, Preston, Rexburg, Rigby, Ririe, Riverside,
15 Roberts, Shelly, Soda Springs and Thatcher.
16 U S WEST recommends that both telephone
17 companies be allowed to recover the cost of providing
18 extended local calling through increases to local rates.
19 U S WEST finally recommends that any expanded local
20 calling be made two way and should be mandatory versus
21 optional. That's my statement. Thank you.
22 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Staff?
23 MR. SCOTT: Hi, I'm David Scott. I'm the
24 public information officer with the Public Utilities
25 Commission and I'll be giving the Staff position tonight,
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1 but before I begin, I'd just like to explain one bit of
2 terminology you'll be hearing a lot of tonight and that
3 is EAS or extended area service. That term is synonymous
4 with toll free calling.
5 Tonight's proceeding involves Case
6 GNR-T-97-8. The Commission initiated this proceeding in
7 response to a petition from residents of the Driggs,
8 Victor and Tetonia communities requesting toll free
9 calling, EAS, to Idaho Falls and the surrounding areas.
10 Customers have additionally expressed an interest in EAS
11 calling to the entire U S WEST eastern Idaho region.
12 The Commission Staff conducted an
13 investigation which looked at both community of interest
14 issues and the costs associated with this petition. When
15 we refer to community of interest issues, we are speaking
16 specifically about such items as school districts,
17 government services and medical services. Through its
18 investigation, Staff found that there was an interest for
19 calling into the Idaho Falls area.
20 The purpose of tonight's hearing is to gain
21 further insight into the community of interest with these
22 exchanges and the eastern Idaho region. We hope also to
23 gain additional insight into the willingness of customers
24 to pay for this EAS.
25 As in all contested cases, there is a
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1 difference between Staff and, in this case, Teton Telecom
2 over the cost of this proposal. Consequently, the
3 numbers I am about to give you will differ from those you
4 just heard from the company. Staff's analysis indicates
5 that the total cost of calling the entire eastern Idaho
6 region will be $17.25 per month per residential line and
7 $32.48 per month per business line. The rates include a
8 monthly EAS adder of $6.00 per month per line. Staff has
9 recommended that the Commission grant EAS to the eastern
10 Idaho region.
11 I'd also like to note that your
12 participation in this proceeding is very important. The
13 comments you give, as you'll see, will be recorded by a
14 court reporter and entered into the official record by
15 which the Commission will render its decision. Thank
16 you.
17 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Our procedure
18 tonight, then, will be to hear from any members of the
19 public who would like to make a statement and as you
20 entered the building this evening, we had a sign-up sheet
21 and those of you that signed up, I'll call you by name
22 and if you'll come forward, I'll ask you to come here
23 before Commissioner Nelson, he'll ask you to raise your
24 hand and he'll swear you in.
25 After you've been sworn in, you can take a
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1 seat right there. The Deputy Attorney General will ask
2 you a couple of questions, mainly to get your name and
3 your address on record and then you'll be able to make
4 your statement. After you've made your statement, there
5 may be a question for you. One of the parties may have a
6 question or the Commission may have a question and you
7 don't have to worry. If you don't know the answer, you
8 can just say you don't know and if you know, then that's
9 great, too, so anyway, we will get started and the first
10 person we have signed up is Craig Sherman, if you'll come
11 forward.
12
13 CRAIG SHERMAN,
14 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
15 sworn, testified as follows:
16
17 EXAMINATION
18
19 BY MR. HOWELL:
20 Q Good evening, sir. Could you state your
21 full name and spell your last for the record, please?
22 A Craig Sherman. Spell the last name?
23 S-h-e-r-m-a-n.
24 Q And, sir, what is your business or
25 residential address?
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1 A Residential address is 730 South 50 West,
2 Victor, Idaho.
3 Q And are you a customer of Teton Telecom?
4 A Yes, sir.
5 Q And do you have a statement you'd like to
6 make tonight?
7 A Yes, sir.
8 Q Please go ahead.
9 A For myself personally, I am in favor of the
10 extended service area, but I would like to make some
11 comments in my capacity as city administrator for the
12 City of Victor. The city engineer is currently located
13 in Rexburg, Idaho and up until just a few months ago, the
14 city attorney was located in Idaho Falls. That's
15 necessitating all communication by long distance.
16 The past 18 months the City of Victor has
17 been involved in a downtown beautification projecting
18 that has entailed a $650,000 project. The contractor for
19 the project was located in Rigby with subcontractors
20 located in Pocatello and Idaho Falls. All of our major
21 suppliers for our water system and our soon to be sewer
22 system are located in the Idaho Falls/Pocatello area.
23 Maintenance, supplies and service for our office machines
24 are located in Idaho Falls.
25 The Caterpillar dealership for our
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1 front-end loader and our snow plow is located in
2 Pocatello and the list goes on. All our main
3 communication for services and products requires long
4 distance service and just over the last four to six
5 months, that would have saved the city several hundred
6 dollars in long distance and fax charges.
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Is that your
8 statement?
9 THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
10 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
11 any questions.
12 Questions? Mr. Howell.
13
14 CROSS-EXAMINATION
15
16 BY MR. HOWELL:
17 Q Mr. Sherman, as the city administrator, how
18 much additional per line do you believe the city would be
19 willing to pay to obtain toll free calling?
20 A That's a good question. We've never
21 discussed that with the council, but I would suppose that
22 even a 25 percent, 25-30 percent increase would not be
23 out of line because of the amount of money that we spend
24 on long distance currently.
25 MR. HOWELL: No further questions.
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1 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Ms. Hobson, did you
2 have any questions?
3 MS. HOBSON: No questions.
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Commissioner?
5 COMMISSIONER NELSON: No, I don't. Thank
6 you.
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Neither do I. Thank
8 you very much.
9 (The witness left the stand.)
10 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Jo Doan.
11
12 JOANNA DOAN,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: My name is Joanna Doan. I
17 live at 412 South 50 West, Driggs, Idaho. My last name
18 is spelled D-o-a-n.
19 MR. HOWELL: And are you a customer of
20 Teton Telecom?
21 THE WITNESS: I am and I'm in favor of the
22 extended service because I am retired. I came from
23 Richland, Washington. I have a lot of family in
24 Pocatello and friends in Idaho Falls and Pocatello and I
25 like to visit with them on occasion, but it seems like
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1 since I moved here about eight years ago, I've managed to
2 keep a $40.00 phone bill just to call Pocatello alone to
3 call my family and if I call my friends, it's $60.00 and
4 sometimes it's $80.00 and I would love to see -- to be
5 able to call just a nominal fee that we pay on a monthly
6 rate.
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, do we have any
8 questions?
9
10 CROSS-EXAMINATION
11
12 BY MR. HOWELL:
13 Q Ma'am, what rate would you be willing to
14 pay?
15 A What rate do you charge in Pocatello? My
16 brother doesn't complain about it and so I would be glad
17 to pay whatever they pay.
18 Q $5.50?
19 A I think that's a very nominal fee when I
20 pay 40, 60 and $80.00 a month just to call around
21 southeast Idaho.
22 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much
23 for your testimony.
24 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
25 (The witness left the stand.)
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1 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have Ron
2 Steely.
3 MR. STEELY: I don't have anything to say
4 at this time.
5 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Carl Nelson.
6
7 CARL NELSON,
8 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
9 sworn, testified as follows:
10
11 EXAMINATION
12
13 BY MR. HOWELL:
14 Q Mr. Nelson, would you state your name and
15 spell your last for the record, please?
16 A Carl J. Nelson, N-e-l-s-o-n.
17 Q And your address, sir?
18 A 151 South 4th East, Driggs, Idaho.
19 Q And are you a customer of Teton Telecom?
20 A Yes, I am.
21 Q Do you have a statement?
22 A Yes, I'd like to make a statement. I'm
23 also a customer of Freemont Telecom in Island Park. I
24 live in Island Park six months out of the year and here
25 in Driggs the other six months out of the year. I
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1 operate a business in Island Park and my wife has to live
2 here in the valley during the summer, so we communicate a
3 lot between Freemont Telecom and Teton Telecom.
4 I'm very much in favor of the reduced cost
5 and extended phone service area and I don't mean to
6 exclude the lower valley because I think we all should be
7 included into it clear to the Utah state line as the rest
8 of the people are. There's a significant economic impact
9 that I see on a daily basis from being a resort owner in
10 Island Park and in communications with Driggs, Idaho here
11 or the area and the tourist industry.
12 We call people over here to rent
13 backpacking equipment and so on from the businesses in
14 the area. They call us for RV reservations and those
15 sorts of things in Island Park, so there's a very direct
16 connection in the tourist industry between the two areas
17 and I very much support the EAS from an economic
18 standpoint.
19 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
20 any questions.
21 Thank you very much for your testimony.
22 THE WITNESS: Thank you, sir.
23 (The witness left the stand.)
24
25
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1 STANTON NICKELL,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 EXAMINATION
6
7 BY MR. HOWELL:
8 Q Good evening, sir. Please state your full
9 name and spell your last name for the record.
10 A My name is Stanton Dale Nickell,
11 N-i-c-k-e-l-l.
12 Q And, Mr. Nickell, where do your reside?
13 A I reside at 256 North Highway 33, Driggs,
14 Idaho.
15 Q And do you have a statement you'd like to
16 give?
17 A Yes, I'd like to make a partial statement
18 here, if I may. I've been in the trucking business for
19 several years and in so doing, we've had to make many
20 long distance calls. I'm also engaged in the farming
21 area and having to call for parts, and doing what we have
22 to for the farming industry, this EAS would be wonderful
23 for us to get into. That's all I have to say, sir.
24 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
25 any questions.
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1 CROSS-EXAMINATION
2
3 BY MR. HOWELL:
4 Q Mr. Nickell, what would you be willing to
5 pay to get the expanded area calling?
6 A I think that this number three or the
7 $20.38 a month would be very good; however, if we could
8 get it cheaper than that, that would be wonderful, also.
9 Q Wouldn't we all.
10 A Right.
11 MR. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
12 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you for your
13 testimony.
14 (The witness left the stand.)
15 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have Tye
16 Tilt.
17
18 TYE TILT,
19 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
20 sworn, testified as follows:
21
22 THE WITNESS: Yes, my name is Tye Tilt. I
23 work for the Teton County Economic Development Council,
24 P.O. Box 766, Driggs Idaho. The last name is Tilt,
25 T-i-l-t, as in pinball. As I said, I do work for the
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1 Economic Development Council here in Driggs and as a
2 staff person for that council, I like to think that we
3 represent business here in Teton County and there are
4 several businesses in Teton County, quite a few. At one
5 point I had a data base of businesses here and there's
6 about 500 on that, so for a small county of about 5,000,
7 we do have quite a few businesses, some of them fairly
8 small mom and pop, some are much larger size; however, I
9 have asked a lot of people what they thought of this
10 extended area calling and almost everybody I've spoken to
11 is in favor of it.
12 I can speak from personal experience with
13 the phone bill for the EDC, our rate would go down about
14 40 to $50.00 a month depending on what activity they have
15 me working on at the time. I do have a couple of
16 concerns that I haven't heard addressed so far. One is
17 that Alta is actually in Wyoming, but is served by Teton
18 Telecom and as I understand it, they're not going to be
19 included in this extended area calling. It's not a big
20 population, so they don't have a lot of voice, but I am
21 concerned that maybe they should be included in the
22 area. Also South Lee Canyon is in Wyoming as well, so I
23 think that issue ought to be addressed.
24 Also, there are some people who don't want
25 to see their rates go up on the phone for any reason
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1 whatsoever, so maybe this could be made optional, though
2 I don't know how that work or what that would do, if it
3 would complicate the issue. I do think that's a good
4 option so that people who aren't in favor of this could
5 get out of it, but speaking for the EDC and for myself
6 personally, it would definitely be a big savings to us on
7 our monthly phone bill. Most of my calls are to Idaho
8 Falls and Pocatello and that area, so thank you.
9 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
10 any questions.
11 Questions? Commissioner.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
13
14 EXAMINATION
15
16 BY COMMISSIONER NELSON:
17 Q You talked about the possibility of an
18 optional rate. Have you talked to anybody who's opposed
19 to this plan?
20 A Yes, just two people.
21 Q Two people?
22 A Out of quite a few.
23 Q Have you talked to anybody who said they
24 were going to be here tonight to oppose it?
25 A No.
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1 Q That they felt that strongly?
2 A No.
3 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
5 (The witness left the stand.)
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We have Mark
7 Mansandarez, I hope I got that right, and Laura?
8 Mansandarez, I think I got that right.
9 AUDIENCE: He's gone.
10 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Oh, they're gone?
11 Okay. See, I went to all that work and they're gone.
12 L. G. Bolton.
13 AUDIENCE: He just left.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: L. A. Bolton-Lewis.
15 AUDIENCE: She left.
16 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Is it Stacy Stewart?
17
18 STACY STEWART,
19 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
20 sworn, testified as follows:
21
22 MR. HOWELL: You know the drill.
23 THE WITNESS: Okay, my name is Stacy
24 Stewart, S-t-e-w-a-r-t. I live at 220 South 2nd Street,
25 Tetonia, Idaho. I conduct business at 78 North Main
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1 Street, Driggs, Idaho. I'd like to start off by thanking
2 the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for the opportunity
3 to address the issue of an expanded area calling service
4 for Teton County, Idaho.
5 It's my understanding that before the
6 Public Utilities Commission will grant an EAS there must
7 be an ongoing relationship among a significant number of
8 residential and business customers in the exchanges. The
9 willingness of Teton County customers to pay a higher
10 rate was well-established with more than 500 names
11 signing a petition that they would accept an increase in
12 their standard rate if they had an extended calling
13 area.
14 When looking at the relationships we have
15 with the Snake River Valley, they include students at
16 Ricks College, Eastern Idaho Vo-Tech School, Idaho State
17 University, elderly friends and loved ones in nursing
18 homes in Idaho Falls and Rexburg, business equipment
19 dealerships and suppliers, agricultural dealerships,
20 radio and television contacts, automobile specialists,
21 lenders, attorneys and specialists in medicine,
22 especially since our local hospital utilizes Columbia
23 Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for air ambulance
24 service and cardiology services. There are patrons in
25 401 School District that are a long distance call from
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1 the Driggs area, also.
2 On a business basis, my hub office is
3 located in Rexburg. We have faxing and phone calls
4 numbering in excess of 10 to 20 per day. The cost to me
5 is going to be a savings of over 200 to $300 a month on a
6 business basis. We have offices in Rexburg, Rigby, Idaho
7 Falls, Blackfoot, Pocatello, Soda Springs and throughout
8 the rest of Idaho that we communicate on a lot of times
9 with trying to come up with committees and things like
10 that. We're always needing to contact each other.
11 The access to on-line databases as well as
12 Internet services and that type of services will be a
13 huge benefit to this valley. At this time we are in
14 favor of proposition one that's been proposed; however,
15 we would be in favor of other propositions at this time.
16 I do have, also, if I could admit it, 136 signed proxy
17 letters of people who could not be here tonight that are
18 in favor of proposition one.
19 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you. Let's see
20 if we have any questions.
21 Do we have any questions from any of the
22 parties?
23
24
25
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1 EXAMINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN:
4 Q I do have a question. What would you be
5 willing to pay? Do you feel like 5 or $6.00 a month is
6 fair?
7 A For residential or business?
8 Q Uh-huh.
9 A For both?
10 Q For both.
11 A On my personal basis, I'd be willing to pay
12 that or more. It would be a great savings. I anticipate
13 probably 60 to $70 a month savings personally. On a
14 business basis, again, I'd be saving 200 to $300 a month,
15 so I'd be willing to pay that.
16 Q Those people that you're representing with
17 written statements, did you have any discussion with them
18 on what range they'd be willing to pay?
19 A With many of them -- if I could, I'd read
20 one of the letters, they're all the same.
21 Q Okay.
22 A "Dear Commission Members, I'm a telephone
23 user within the area of service of Teton Telecom. I'm in
24 favor of the proposed extended area service calling
25 area. While I am in favor of proposition one that would
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CSB REPORTING STEWART (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 increase the base phone rate from $11.25 to $17.51, an
2 increase of $6.26, I would also favor any other proposal
3 that extends the calling area for a reasonable cost. I
4 am unable to attend the public hearing, but request that
5 you accept this letter as my vote in favor of the above
6 EAS."
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you. Thank you
8 for your testimony.
9 (The witness left the stand.)
10 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have an
11 individual from Rexburg. Clarence is his first name and
12 he signed his last name like I do on some of my checks
13 and I can't distinguish it.
14
15 CLARENCE GUMMOW,
16 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
17 sworn, testified as follows:
18
19 THE WITNESS: My name is Clarence Gummow.
20 My last name is spelled G-u-m-m-o-w. I live at 515
21 Taurus in Rexburg. I also work at 130 East Main in
22 Rexburg, as well as branch office 78 North Main in
23 Driggs, Idaho here. I'm the counterpart to Stacy Stewart
24 who just spoke with you on the business side, and I will
25 be addressing really the business side. I'm also, since
109
CSB REPORTING GUMMOW
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 I'm out of the valley, I already belong to the EAS
2 service area out that way and so I can see the benefits
3 of it.
4 I can watch my wife call her family in
5 Montpelier and Pocatello all the time and she spends
6 quite a bit of time doing that now, where before she
7 wouldn't because we had to make sure we could pay the
8 bill. There's a huge savings, just like Stacy pointed
9 out from his end, of about $200 per month on the business
10 side. We anticipate that to be much, much more as we
11 start tying in with computer lines and become more data
12 entry-type in our telephone service between all of Idaho
13 and we're going to see this type of stuff going on more
14 and more in the business sector.
15 People that are living in the Driggs Valley
16 and the Teton Valley are going to be able to contact
17 customers outside of this valley far more readily with
18 that type of service and it's going to be a lot more cost
19 effective. I know that my company is involved in the
20 service industry where a lot of information will be
21 flowing over the telephone lines and if you've ever tried
22 to send all that information over the telephone lines,
23 it's very expensive, particularly when you have to do it
24 long distance-wise and so it would be a big benefit to
25 us.
110
CSB REPORTING GUMMOW
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 My company, Alliance Title and Escrow,
2 myself being vice president of that company, supports the
3 EAS service for this area and we feel like it would be a
4 benefit to the local residents as well as a lot of people
5 all throughout eastern Idaho. We feel like that it would
6 bring these communities together a lot closer. That's
7 what I have to say.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
9 any questions.
10 Mr. Ward.
11
12 CROSS-EXAMINATION
13
14 BY MR. WARD:
15 Q Yes, can you hear me okay?
16 A Yes.
17 Q We've had some questions in this case about
18 the extent of computer usage, so I want to ask you just a
19 couple of questions about that. Do you use E-mail in
20 your business presently?
21 A Presently not out of our office, but a lot
22 of our offices are using E-mail.
23 Q Do you anticipate that if you had the local
24 interconnection that you might set up an E-mail system?
25 A Yes.
111
CSB REPORTING GUMMOW (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Q And I assume that one of the other things
2 you would do would be simply tie in one or more computers
3 between your office in Driggs and your office in Rexburg
4 and leave them on constantly?
5 A Yes.
6 MR. WARD: That's all I have. Thank you.
7 THE WITNESS: Could I elaborate just a
8 little bit on that on that, too?
9 MR. WARD: Please.
10 THE WITNESS: Right now through U S WEST's
11 lines we are using frame relay between Boise and Rexburg
12 as well as a whole bunch of our other offices and we
13 anticipate we'll be moving an awful lot of data over the
14 phone lines in the future, like a lot.
15 MR. WARD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
16 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Ms. Hobson.
17 MS. HOBSON: No questions.
18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Mr. Howell?
19 Commissioner?
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: No questions.
21 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much
22 for your testimony.
23 THE WITNESS: I also have four other
24 letters from business people that are in Rexburg that
25 support this, too, that I'll present to you.
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CSB REPORTING GUMMOW (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: If you would like to
2 leave that with us.
3 (The witness left the stand.)
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Julian Winder.
5
6 JULIAN WINDER,
7 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
8 sworn, testified as follows:
9
10 THE WITNESS: My name is Julian D. Winder,
11 last name spelling of W-i-n-d-e-r. My current residence
12 is at 158 South 100 East, Driggs, Idaho, and I do use
13 Teton Telecom and I would, I do have a statement I'd like
14 to make. Not too long ago, this is more for my personal
15 end of it, we just had a baby that was seven weeks
16 premature and had to spend numerous time in Idaho Falls
17 while I had to stay here and work. It would have been a
18 great help to us with the calling back of doctors and
19 everybody else to be able to have this extended service.
20 We spent about 80 to $100 just in trying to communicate
21 with doctors. That's not counting us talking back and
22 forth to each other.
23 The other point I wanted to make is we do
24 have two different cell phone companies here, which both
25 those when you call either a loved one or if you have an
113
CSB REPORTING WINDER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 emergency and need to call somebody, they are Rexburg
2 numbers and it is a long distance phone call for us to
3 call those numbers. With the extended service, that
4 would make it a local call which would really help in
5 making it so we can communicate a lot better. That's all
6 I have to say.
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
8 any questions.
9 Mr. Howell.
10
11 CROSS-EXAMINATION
12
13 BY MR. HOWELL:
14 Q Mr. Winder, what would you be willing to
15 pay for that service?
16 A I'd be willing to pay anywhere from the
17 $6.21 that's offered up to probably $15.00, it means that
18 much to me.
19 MR. HOWELL: Thank you.
20 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, thank you very
21 much.
22 (The witness left the stand.)
23 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Emory J. Anderson.
24 MR. ANDERSON: I don't have a statement.
25 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Sonja Head.
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CSB REPORTING WINDER (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 AUDIENCE: She's not going to come down.
2 MS. HEAD: I thought you had to sign in.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, and your
4 husband, would you like to come forward, then?
5 MR. HEAD: Yes, sir.
6
7 KITCHENER HEAD,
8 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
9 sworn, testified as follows:
10
11 THE WITNESS: We thought we were signing
12 present, but I would like to testify anyway. My name is
13 Kitchener E. Head. Head is spelled like head. I live at
14 110 Little Avenue, Driggs, and also rural Victor part of
15 the time. First, I'd like to tell Teton Telecom that we
16 really enjoy their service. They're giving us good
17 service and I wouldn't do anything that would maybe cause
18 them expense.
19 I do live here in the valley and work in
20 Rexburg and the nature of my work necessitates a lot of
21 calls from here out there when I'm not there and from
22 there up here when I am there or from there up here when
23 I'm not out there. It's constant calling back and forth
24 and, of course, that would save a great deal of money if
25 we had this extended area service.
115
CSB REPORTING HEAD
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 My wife has a home-based business and she
2 makes sometimes up to a dozen calls a day to that
3 extended area. We have E-mail, we have voice mail and
4 also an 800 number besides the voice mail. This would, I
5 think, make things a whole lot easier and a whole lot
6 simpler and a whole lot less expensive. Our telephone
7 bills to that area are probably in excess of $200 a
8 month, maybe, my wife says I'm ashamed to say, but maybe
9 even a lot more than that.
10 Also, two of our children live in that
11 extended area and it would be a lot better that way,
12 too. For this savings of hundreds and hundreds of
13 dollars, I'd be willing to pay 5 or $10.00, yes.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you. Let's see
15 if we have any questions.
16 Thank you for your testimony.
17 (The witness left the stand.)
18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Now we'll call Neil
19 Johnson.
20 AUDIENCE: I think he was happy with the
21 testimony and left.
22 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Tony Wade.
23
24
25
116
CSB REPORTING HEAD
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 TONY WADE,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Tony Lynn Wade,
6 W-a-d-e, and I reside at 465 North 3rd East, Driggs,
7 Idaho, and I run a business at 106 North Main, Driggs,
8 Idaho. I am in favor of this proposal to expand our
9 calling area for, number one, the savings benefit that it
10 has not only residentially but business-wise. I operate
11 an insurance agency in Driggs where our regional office
12 is located in Pocatello, Idaho and we make numerous calls
13 there each day and we have our district office located in
14 Idaho Falls, Idaho where we make several calls there each
15 day, as well as having customers out in those Rexburg,
16 Idaho Falls calling areas, so it would be a big savings
17 as far as us in our business and not only residentially
18 as well.
19 As far as the savings, I know that this
20 proposal came one time when Idaho Falls and Pocatello and
21 Rexburg all joined together at one time and the question
22 I had is what savings, you know, what extra they had to
23 pay for that usage and I wouldn't be opposed to the same
24 amount.
25 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, let's see if we
117
CSB REPORTING WADE
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 have any questions.
2 Thank you for your testimony.
3 (The witness left the stand.)
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Joanne Spicer.
5 MS. SPICER: I'm going to pass.
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: R. Harris.
7 MR. HARRIS: No testimony at this time.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, Duane Kunz.
9
10 DUANE KUNZ,
11 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
12 sworn, testified as follows:
13
14 THE WITNESS: This is news to me. I signed
15 my name and my wife's name and I didn't mean to speak,
16 but anyway --
17 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Mr. Kunz, you signed
18 your name first.
19 THE WITNESS: Well, my name is Duane Kunz
20 and my address is 476 West 575 South, Victor, Idaho.
21 MR. HOWELL: Mr. Kunz, could you use the
22 microphone and spell your last name?
23 THE WITNESS: K-u-n-z. Did you get the
24 address? Well, I'm in favor of the cost being reduced
25 for our long distance calls. I don't have a business,
118
CSB REPORTING KUNZ
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 but I have to call these implement companies. Now, I see
2 there's a man or two here that would have to say yes to
3 my saying this, but it would save us quite a sum of money
4 each month to have this reduced, and I'm on the
5 conservative side because I am a republican and $5.00
6 would be a pretty big price to pay.
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
8 any questions.
9 Mr. Ward.
10 MR. WARD: I'm not touching that.
11 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, thank you very
12 much.
13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: In all fairness,
15 since you signed your wife's name, Jean Kunz, would she
16 like to testify?
17 MR. KUNZ: No, she can't walk very well.
18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay.
19 J. Liebenthal is it?
20
21
22
23
24
25
119
CSB REPORTING KUNZ
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 JOHN LIEBENTHAL,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is John L.
6 Liebenthal, L-i-e-b-e-n-t-h-a-l. I live at 590 Syringa
7 Drive which is rural Victor and I am a Teton Telecom
8 customer. I guess I'm just a case study. We have two
9 lines. One is a home line, the other is used primarily
10 for Internet, faxes and that sort of thing. We have a
11 large number of friends in Idaho Falls and a daughter in
12 Idaho Falls. Right now we spend, well, my wife thinks
13 it's about 40 bucks a month to call Idaho Falls, I looked
14 at a couple of bills and it looks to me like it's 20.
15 Anyway, we would be willing to spend quite a bit more for
16 that, and I listened a little bit this afternoon and
17 there was a controversy about whether the traffic would
18 double or quadruple.
19 On our one line I'm spending about 20 to 30
20 hours a month with an Internet service provider in Idaho
21 Falls and that probably would not go up. The other line
22 which is used for calls to friends and family in Idaho
23 Falls, I think quadruple would be an underestimate,
24 because there are a lot of people there we don't call up
25 and talk to because it just costs a bunch of money and we
120
CSB REPORTING LIEBENTHAL
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 have much shorter phone calls than we ordinarily would.
2 Actually, on the other line which I use for
3 some consulting, right now I consult a couple of weeks a
4 year and right now it is just as easy for me to call
5 Oakridge, Tennessee and work with people there as with
6 people in Idaho Falls. I'd much rather work with people
7 in Idaho Falls. That would greatly facilitate my
8 consulting with companies in Idaho Falls, so that would
9 be a great help.
10 The other thing that hasn't been mentioned
11 that I think is worth mentioning, people talk about
12 implement dealers and all that, one thing that happens
13 here in this valley is that you can get most everything
14 you need in this valley, except when you need something
15 you can't get in the valley, you have a choice. You can
16 start calling around or you can drive over the hill to
17 Jackson or you can drive to Idaho Falls and it's much
18 easier to drive to Jackson than it is to Idaho Falls, and
19 I'm a buy Idaho kind of person and I would much rather be
20 able to make a free call to Idaho Falls and see if they
21 have it there or maybe five or six and see where the
22 cheapest prices are, and I think it would facilitate
23 commerce within Idaho Falls without detracting from
24 business in the valley to be on the extended area
25 service.
121
CSB REPORTING LIEBENTHAL
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, thank you.
2 Let's see if we have any questions.
3 Thank you for your testimony.
4 (The witness left the stand.)
5 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have Roy
6 Moulton.
7
8 ROY MOULTON,
9 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
10 sworn, testified as follows:
11
12 THE WITNESS: My name is Roy Moulton. Last
13 name M-o-u-l-t-o-n. I'm presently homeless, but I do run
14 a business on 60 East Wallace in Driggs. I'm in favor of
15 the extended area calling. In my business I expect --
16 well, just going over the last few months of phone
17 records, it would save me several hundred dollars a month
18 to be included in that area. I'm an attorney. Usually
19 I'm dealing with attorneys in Idaho Falls or Rexburg.
20 I suspect very little will be said here
21 today about the calls that come into Teton County from
22 that same area, that it wouldn't be just the residents of
23 Teton County who would benefit from it, but the people
24 having to call this area as well.
25 I think it's a significant disadvantage to
122
CSB REPORTING MOULTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 businesses in this community because the area of commerce
2 as it affects most businesses is truly the greater Idaho
3 Falls area, not just Teton County. Even though a lot of
4 services are available here, as has been mentioned, a lot
5 of specialized services are only available in the larger
6 area. We don't have an equipment dealer here for the
7 farmers. All of the equipment dealers would be in the
8 greater area.
9 Even for medicine, even though we have a
10 great hospital and we have a lot of visiting physicians
11 that are here once a week or once every two weeks or
12 something like that, when you utilize that physician, you
13 end up dealing with him in Idaho Falls, usually, and so
14 even though a lot of services are available to us here,
15 it's the nature of commerce in this day and age that a
16 lot of services aren't available to us and so I think we
17 probably call the greater Idaho Falls area a lot more
18 often today than we did just a few years back, and it's
19 been mentioned that the cell phones, they're getting so
20 popular everybody has got one and if they don't have one,
21 they have two and people are getting so used to using
22 them, they use them as indiscriminately as they do a
23 local line and every time we call one, we have to call
24 long distance, as has been mentioned, so I would be in
25 favor of paying, like Dr. Head, for all that hundreds of
123
CSB REPORTING MOULTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 dollars of savings, I would be willing to pay a few
2 dollars.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you. Let's see
4 if we have any questions. I just have one question.
5
6 EXAMINATION
7
8 BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN:
9 Q It seems like we talked here tonight a lot
10 about the Idaho Falls area, do you see any value in being
11 able to call into the Pocatello area as well as the
12 southeast corner down there into the Preston, Bear Lake
13 area or do you see it mainly just Idaho Falls?
14 A Because I was the attorney that filed the
15 application for the community, I got some of the
16 discovery and I saw some of the data on that.
17 Apparently, right now there aren't a lot of calls going
18 to Pocatello and south. Personally, I would benefit a
19 tremendous amount by that, but as I saw the cost
20 breakdown, the incremental cost breakdown, it appeared to
21 me that there would only be a few cents' savings to
22 exclude that from the area; in other words, just to have
23 it to Idaho Falls, so because it's so little more to be
24 able to call Preston, I think we should include it in the
25 same -- we should be included in the same area clear to
124
CSB REPORTING MOULTON (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Preston.
2 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
3 THE WITNESS: Mr. Chairman, I also have, I
4 haven't counted them, but a number of letters from people
5 who couldn't attend.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I should have
8 mentioned before we got started, any of you that would
9 like to give us written comments, there are sheets there
10 at the table maybe you picked up as you were coming in,
11 you can leave them with us tonight or you can mail them
12 in and they'll be part of the record.
13 I've had a request, some people, I guess,
14 need to leave and yet, they'd kind of like to have a show
15 of support and we'll continue on with those that have
16 signed up, but there's been a request that we ask just by
17 as a group or a body here how many support expanding the
18 local calling area and so I'd just like to take a minute
19 and ask all of those that are here tonight that support
20 expanding the local calling area if you'd please stand.
21 Okay, I'm going to ask you to remain
22 standing unless you feel an urge to sit down, how many of
23 you would support it if it was $3.00, remain standing?
24 And you can sit down if you wouldn't support that.
25 How many if it was $5.00 would support
125
CSB REPORTING MOULTON (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 that, remain standing.
2 How about $6.00?
3 I'm really going to jump, how about $10.00,
4 how many of you would support it if it was $10.00? If
5 you couldn't support it, sit down, please, and the last,
6 how about $14.00?
7 Okay, I'm not going to go -- we had an
8 individual the other day that said at a public hearing
9 they could support 100, but I won't go that high.
10 Okay, we have Bill Moulton.
11
12 WILLIAM MOULTON,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: My name is William Moulton,
17 M-o-u-l-t-o-n. I reside at 494 North Highway 33. I
18 operate a CPA office as well as I'm a farmer. I have a
19 total of four telephone lines. I have children residing
20 throughout the proposed EAS. I deal extensively with
21 farm dealers. I'm also -- I also have diabetic
22 retinopathy which is a disease of the eyes and my
23 ophthalmologist is in Idaho Falls.
24 A few months ago I could call him toll
25 free. He had an 800 number. When the EAS went into
126
CSB REPORTING MOULTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 effect, I noticed a number of 800 numbers that we used to
2 be able to call no longer existed because they only --
3 they didn't extend it just to Teton County and I think
4 that that is one of the reasons that along with brother
5 Roy, I was the one who formulated the early petition
6 because I sensed that there was a gross discrimination
7 for the people that could call from Preston to Rexburg
8 and I couldn't call Rexburg or Idaho Falls, and I feel
9 like that, if on no other level than fairness, ought to
10 be addressed.
11 I have numerous clients that reside in the
12 Madison, Bonneville, Freemont, Jefferson counties and
13 contacting them is very expensive. I too was at the
14 hearing earlier today and listened to the arguments over
15 whether or not traffic would double or quadruple. I know
16 this much, that my calls to my family alone will be more
17 than quadruple, the frequency, because of the necessity
18 now of long distance calls.
19 In fact, I tend to use my cell phone to
20 call in those areas and eat up my cell phone minutes to
21 call them rather than to use the long distance, and as
22 far as my cost savings, they would be substantial.
23 Apparently, with four lines I'm going to get to pay quite
24 a lot of money to do this and I was still standing at
25 $14.00, so I think that's indicative of the interest in
127
CSB REPORTING MOULTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 the community. Thank you.
2 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
3 Let's see if we have any questions.
4 Thank you for your testimony.
5 (The witness left the stand.)
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We have Scott M., I
7 believe it's, Ragul.
8
9 SCOTT McKAGUE,
10 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
11 sworn, testified as follows:
12
13 THE WITNESS: Scott McKague,
14 M-c-K-a-g-u-e. I reside here in Driggs at 290 North Main
15 in the funeral home. My business is impacted greatly,
16 but there's a couple of things that I want to bring about
17 to you, if I can, while we're here that I don't think
18 have been touched on yet. I think there's a lot more
19 business that is being done here with customers in Idaho
20 Falls area impacting people the other side, too which,
21 obviously, helps those of us who do that kind of thing.
22 Now, I don't bury a lot of people from down
23 there, but I do have a lot of families down there and
24 that helps me a lot, because I've had to have an 800
25 number listed in the yellow pages in order to make it
128
CSB REPORTING McKAGUE
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 possible for people to make it a little easier for them
2 to call me and to do business that way, and I think that
3 would help me considerably if I was able to make that
4 available to those people down there coming this
5 direction, you know, thinking about the other side of the
6 coin.
7 I know that you had discussed a little bit
8 about the increase being leveled out, whether it be
9 business or individual households, and I'd like to think
10 that maybe the share of everything would be pretty much
11 shared equally. Even though I have a business and I have
12 household lines, I think that everybody is impacted and,
13 therefore, I think as fair as we can make it, because of
14 what some of the things you've talked about, I would like
15 to see that increase being shared fairly equally amongst
16 businesses and individual households.
17 I also know that there's a lot of people --
18 now, I know this has nothing to with this conversation
19 tonight, but there's a lot of people that do have
20 businesses in Jackson, also, where I also have a business
21 and it would be nice if we eventually could make that. I
22 don't know if that's too far away, but there sure is a
23 lot of people that live here and commute to the Jackson
24 Hole area. That's about it, I guess.
25 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, let's see, do
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CSB REPORTING McKAGUE
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 we have any questions?
2 Thank you for your testimony.
3 (The witness left the stand.)
4 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Melvin Strong.
5 MR. STRONG: I'll pass.
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Shawn Perkins.
7
8 SHAWN PERKINS,
9 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
10 sworn, testified as follows:
11
12 THE WITNESS: My name is Shawn Perkins,
13 P-e-r-k-i-n-s, and I live at 307 North Highway 33.
14 That's my residence and also my business address. I am a
15 Teton Telecom customer. I'm also the owner of
16 (inaudible) Sanitation. It's a local garbage collection
17 company in this valley and I am in favor of the EAS, as I
18 think most people here are, for a couple of different
19 reasons, one of the most important of which is because it
20 is kind of a specialized business and the trucks that I
21 have, I have to go outside of the area, usually in the
22 extended service area, to be able to find parts for my
23 trucks which have frequent breakdowns just because
24 they're used so frequently and because the roads that we
25 have in this valley, so it's really important to me to be
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CSB REPORTING PERKINS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 able to get out into those areas and to be able to shop
2 around and be able to find parts.
3 The second reason why is while I don't have
4 immediate plans to expand out into that area, should I do
5 so in the near future, most of my customer base and most
6 of the growth would happen in that area and should I be
7 able to expand out there, then I would probably maintain
8 my billing and other customer services in this area, so
9 it would make a huge impact on me to be able to have
10 local calling in that area.
11 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, thank you.
12 Do we have any questions?
13 Thank you for your testimony.
14 (The witness left the stand.)
15 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have Jim
16 Dewey.
17 AUDIENCE: He left.
18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Gordon Woolley.
19
20 GORDON WOOLLEY,
21 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
22 sworn, testified as follows:
23
24 THE WITNESS: My name is Gordon Woolley,
25 W-o-o-l-l-e-y. I live at 80 South 100 East. I'm the
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1 superintendent of schools in Teton County, Idaho and our
2 offices are at 210 North Main in Driggs. A couple of
3 things that would concern us for the school district,
4 that's how I'm speaking tonight as a school district
5 superintendent, we do have some students that come over
6 from Swan Valley which is a long distance phone call for
7 us. We do have some who live in the Green Canyon area
8 which also is a long distance phone call for us at this
9 point in time. Not a lot of students, but it would be
10 nice to be able to contact those parents without a long
11 distance phone call.
12 Most of our services for copying machines,
13 software, computer, all of those things come out of
14 Rexburg and Idaho Falls. Most of our service for our
15 buses, parts, all of those things are a long distance
16 phone call to Idaho Falls or Pocatello area.
17 Our extracurricular activities at our
18 schools are all in the extended area service, the
19 majority of them are, and during this time of year we
20 make lot of phone calls for officials, to verify
21 schedules, to change schedules and those are all long
22 distance phone calls for us.
23 One of the things that I heard someone ask
24 about is Pocatello. We have a number of students who
25 graduate from here and go to Idaho State University. I
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1 would think that would be advantageous for parents to
2 have that access to the their students in Pocatello.
3 Personally, my folks live in Pocatello, so it would be
4 nice, I could cut down the cost there.
5 We also belong to a consortium of Sugar
6 Salem School District, South Freemont School District and
7 our school district for all of our special services for
8 our special education children and we make daily phone
9 calls to St. Anthony which is where the offices are, so
10 the extended service area would be a great savings for
11 the school district. Thank you.
12 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see, do we have
13 any questions?
14 Yes, Mr. Howell.
15
16 CROSS-EXAMINATION
17
18 BY MR. HOWELL:
19 Q Mr. Woolley, at your schools or do any of
20 your schools have distance learning capability?
21 A We do have a distance learning lab here in
22 the valley hooked up with Eastern Idaho Technical
23 College. We pay a bundle for that line.
24 Q So we could have done this hearing virtual
25 reality?
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CSB REPORTING WOOLLEY (X)
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1 A We could have, yeah. If we had waited
2 longer and all these people would have gone home, we
3 could have done it over the Internet.
4 MR. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
5 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Any other questions?
6 Thank you for your testimony.
7 (The witness left the stand.)
8 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Nancy Ames?
9 Randy Ames?
10 Susan Kunz.
11
12 SUSAN KUNZ,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: My name is Susan Kunz,
17 K-u-n-z. I'm the hospital, Teton Valley Hospital,
18 administrator, so I'll speaking in that capacity. Our
19 address is Post Office Box 728, Driggs, Idaho. My
20 personal address is 803 South Baseline in Victor. We
21 would definitely support the expanded service area. As
22 has been previously mentioned, all of our tertiary care
23 for health care is located in the lower valley, primarily
24 in Rexburg and Idaho Falls. It's critical, crucial that
25 we have those connections.
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1 Right now the hospital bill, which I think
2 is primarily medical care, is over $1,000 a month and I
3 would estimate that 75 percent of that would be in the
4 service area. You talked a little bit with Mr. Woolley
5 about telemedicine. We do have teleradiography lines
6 into Madison Memorial in Rexburg. Our radiologists are
7 there. We are connected to the hospital and to their
8 individual homes. We can fax an X-ray any time of the
9 day, 24 hours a day, over those lines, so those lines are
10 always open. That access is critical; so as far as the
11 medical specialists and having those connections, it's
12 very timely and very important for the hospital and for
13 medical care.
14 As far as personally, I have three students
15 at Idaho State University. I'd love to call them without
16 a long distance call. Also, hospital-wise, we belong to
17 a consortium. There's been a little conversation about
18 the south hub and the importance of the south hub, we are
19 in a hospital consortium which is all of the public
20 hospitals in southeast, which hubs clear down around
21 Montpelier, Preston and so we make a considerable amount
22 of calls down to that area. That would be a significant
23 savings.
24 Probably our sister hospital, if there is a
25 sister hospital in the state, is Montpelier. We do more,
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1 probably more, comparison, more work with Montpelier as
2 far as a sister hospital than any other hospital in the
3 state, so the hospital would have a significant advantage
4 with the south hub that perhaps other people wouldn't
5 have.
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, thank you.
7 Let's see if we have any questions.
8 Thank you for your testimony.
9 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
10 (The witness left the stand.)
11 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We now have Wendi
12 Reece.
13 How about Bonnie Reece?
14 Ryan Kunz.
15
16 RYAN KUNZ,
17 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
18 sworn, testified as follows:
19
20 THE WITNESS: My name is Ryan Kunz,
21 K-u-n-z. I live at 616 South 100 West in Victor and I'm
22 also in favor of this. We have a dairy farm. We do a
23 lot of calling out to Rexburg, Idaho Falls. I also have
24 three daughters, three students, out at Ricks College. I
25 made the mistake of getting a 1-800 number, so, needless
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1 to say, our telephone bill is about $200 a month, so we
2 would be in favor of this.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, let's see if we
4 have any questions.
5 Thank you for your testimony.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Renae Kunz.
8 MR. KUNZ: She's gone.
9 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Merle Kunz.
10
11 MERLE KUNZ,
12 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
13 sworn, testified as follows:
14
15 THE WITNESS: I live at 606 South 100 West,
16 Victor, Idaho. I'm very much in favor of us being
17 allowed to get into this. We enjoy visiting with our
18 children and with our brothers and sisters. My wife has
19 sisters in the Montpelier area and so I would be
20 interested in having the hub.
21 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see, do we have
22 any questions?
23 Yes, Mr. Howell.
24
25
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1 CROSS-EXAMINATION
2
3 BY MR. HOWELL:
4 Q Mr. Kunz, when did you sit down when they
5 were asking how much you would be willing to pay?
6 A I stood until the end.
7 MR. HOWELL: There you go.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Any other questions?
9 Thank you very much for your testimony.
10 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
11 (The witness left the stand.)
12 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Maurene Kunz.
13 MS. KUNZ: He talked for me.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Leta Hoopes.
15 Brent Hoopes.
16 Brad Street?
17 Jana Street?
18 Belinda Hale?
19
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24
25
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1 BELINDA HALE,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Belinda Hale,
6 H-a-l-e. I live at 178 West 400 North, Tetonia. I'm not
7 a small town girl when I was raised. I've just recently
8 been here for three years. I came from big-time Seattle,
9 so I'm used to being able to call an extended area just
10 because you always could. When I came here and found out
11 I was limited to as far as I could see, and maybe not
12 even that far, it was just something I had never fathomed
13 before.
14 They had various other ways if you lived
15 outside of an area to have a rural, I can't remember the
16 word, rural extension-type deal where you paid so much
17 per mile and then you had a "local phone number." I
18 stayed up until the end. I would be willing to pay
19 10-$15.00 for this. That would still cut my long
20 distance in half on a slow month.
21 I think it would really benefit the
22 businesses, also, in this area. I work locally and we
23 have to make phone calls within the state to find out
24 different kinds of parts and things like that or find out
25 information for customers and whatnot. I guess that's
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1 about all.
2 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Let's see if we have
3 any questions.
4 Thank you for your testimony.
5 (The witness left the stand.)
6 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Elaine Smith?
7 Let's see, Juanita Bainbridge.
8 AUDIENCE: She left.
9 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I think what we'll do
10 is take about a ten-minute break and then we'll come back
11 and we still have a few people that have signed up and if
12 anybody else would like to sign up, we'll still have some
13 time to hear additional testimony, so we'll take a
14 ten-minute break and then resume our hearing.
15 (Recess.)
16 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Okay, Geoff Lynes.
17
18 GEOFF LYNES,
19 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
20 sworn, testified as follows:
21
22 THE WITNESS: My name is Geoff Lynes,
23 L-y-n-e-s. I live at 525 South 180 East in Victor. I'm
24 a nurse at the hospital. I use my personal phone for
25 some professional business but mostly personal. The
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1 benefit to the hospital would be tremendous by this;
2 however, the flip side of that is we have two phone lines
3 at our home and at worst case scenario at 20 bucks more
4 per line, that's an extra $40.00, that's not a savings I
5 could recoup on my home lines.
6 Also, one of those lines at home is really
7 only used for local calls to a local Internet provider,
8 so that would be an additional $20.00 fee on a line that
9 does not do anything except for the Internet access. I
10 don't know the particulars of the systems and what it
11 would take to do it, but it would seem to me that if
12 there was an option to have just a plain local line that
13 does only local calls without this additional fee, it
14 would fulfill some other needs in the community aside
15 from the long distance needs out to the Idaho Falls area
16 as well, and I do use my personal line to call Idaho
17 Falls and would benefit from that, so I'm sort of in both
18 camps in that regard and, also, am I allowed to ask a
19 question of you guys from here? No, okay. I'll ask it
20 later. That's all I have. Thanks.
21 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much.
22 Do we have any questions?
23 Okay, thank you for your testimony.
24 (The witness left the stand.)
25 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: We have Scott
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1 Callahan.
2
3 SCOTT BOHR,
4 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
5 sworn, testified as follows:
6
7 THE WITNESS: My name is actually Scott
8 Bohr, B-o-h-r, and I live at 70 South 1st East in Driggs,
9 and my wife and I both partook in this letter. I would
10 like Teton Telecom and the Idaho Public Utilities
11 Commission to know that we are not in favor of this
12 extended service proposal in any way, shape or form. Our
13 reasons are quite simple. There is no public emergency
14 need for this extension. All emergency services can be
15 tended to quite capably here in Teton Basin by dialing
16 locally.
17 We do not have any friends nor relatives in
18 the proposed extension area and resent having to pay for
19 other people to chat with their loved ones. If everyone
20 would be in favor of extending this service as far as
21 Bozeman, we might consider the proposal, but, as is, we
22 think that it is very unfair that we should have to pay
23 for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes worth of calls,
24 depending on your calling plan, that we would never make
25 in the first place.
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CSB REPORTING BOHR
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1 On the rare occasion that we do need to
2 call Rexburg or Idaho Falls, we always access our long
3 distance carrier who offers us much reduced calling rates
4 to those towns. These access codes are offered by all
5 major long distance carriers.
6 In addition, we would like to add how
7 incensed we are that Teton Valley Chamber of Commerce and
8 its fellow members support this proposed extension
9 service area. They are always encouraging us to trade
10 locally and we oblige them. It is ironic that they now
11 want us to pay for their phone calls so that they can do
12 business outside Teton Valley. That's all I have to
13 say.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
15 Do we have any questions?
16 Thank you very much for your testimony.
17 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
18 (The witness left the stand.)
19 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Nancy Rodrigues?
20 Del Fullmar.
21
22
23
24
25
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1 DEL FULLMAR,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Del Fullmar,
6 F-u-l-l-m-a-r. I reside at 29 West 200 South, Driggs,
7 Idaho. I am a customer of Teton Telecom. I own and
8 operate a repair business for farm equipment, diesel
9 equipment in this county. I am in favor of the EAS for
10 several reasons. One of the reasons is I do business
11 with a lot of different suppliers. I was encouraged by
12 the statement from the person just before me saying they
13 like to buy locally. That's my philosophy. I do like to
14 buy locally. I like to buy as close as I can, but when
15 all the implement dealers and all the dealers that I have
16 to obtain parts for these people that call me locally, I
17 have to make calls out of the valley to get the parts.
18 I have to call Rexburg is the closest Case
19 dealer, the closest John Deere dealer is Rexburg or Idaho
20 Falls, but what happens invariably is each dealer doesn't
21 have the unlimited inventory so they can supply all of
22 the parts I need, so I end up calling all of southeast
23 Idaho anywhere from Rexburg to Ashton to Pocatello,
24 Blackfoot, Jerome, Preston, Twin Falls, all of southeast
25 Idaho, there's different dealers. The closest
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CSB REPORTING FULLMAR
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1 Caterpillar dealer is in Pocatello, the very closest. I
2 would benefit greatly by the EAS to be in all of
3 southeast Idaho.
4 Another thing that sometimes happens is if
5 I dial directly through on the southeast Idaho customers
6 on long distance to Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Pocatello, any
7 of these areas that I call frequently, it ends up costing
8 me more to call them than it does to call a supplier out
9 of Salt Lake City, Utah or Portland, Oregon or Denver,
10 Colorado. I'd like to see eastern Idaho and Idaho
11 benefit by the increased sales that would accrue from
12 having this service available to all them.
13 Another benefit that I would like to
14 mention is before I come up here in 1980 to start the
15 business, I worked in the lower valley in Rexburg for
16 some different implement dealers, implement dealers,
17 farmers and whatnot, and I have a lot of friends and a
18 certain clientele there. If they could access me without
19 having to call long distance, I think it would possibly
20 benefit my business. It could be a substantial benefit.
21 I have no way of really knowing until it's available.
22 In southeast Idaho we have a lot of new
23 businesses that would like to come into this area and
24 that EAS would give them a little bit of a help as far as
25 competing with other businesses if they were accessed by
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1 being able to call up to Driggs with a local call instead
2 of having to call long distance. If I want to start a
3 business that a lot of my clientele would be in Idaho
4 Falls, I'm limited to having to come up with an 800
5 number and then publicize it and get it there; whereas,
6 with EAS, it's a lot easier to get that included into
7 their system.
8 A lot of the people that I've talked to
9 have felt like they was left out in the cold. If you
10 have any wonders of what it's like to feel like you're in
11 a leper colony, you might want to consider moving to
12 Teton Valley. When we was excluded from the EAS
13 originally, we felt like we was cast off. There's a very
14 small part of southeast Idaho that was excluded. We were
15 cast out. We were left to be included with Wyoming or
16 somewhere else and it made a lot of people feel like that
17 Idaho wasn't concerned about this area.
18 One of the other comments that I wanted to
19 make was the State of Idaho has received a fairly large
20 sum of money to the Governor as part of his deal with the
21 government for the nuclear waste storage and to support
22 the economy of southeast Idaho. U S WEST was given a
23 sizeable grant of money to help stimulate the economy of
24 southeast Idaho as well as other businesses. I'd like to
25 give them the opportunity to help all of Idaho that is
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1 affected and not just select portions and I think that's
2 basically most of what I had to say.
3 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
4 Do we have any questions for Mr. Fullmar?
5 Thank you for your testimony.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Sally Luke.
8
9 SALLY LUKE,
10 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
11 sworn, testified as follows:
12
13 THE WITNESS: My name is Sally Luke,
14 L-u-k-e. I reside at 17 Pinochle Road, Felt. I have
15 four points to make which I'll make very quickly. I know
16 everybody wants to go home. I'm concerned about the
17 potential increase in my phone charges as I rarely call
18 outside the valley into southeast Idaho. This is not a
19 geographical scheme and it does concern me that Jackson,
20 which is the place I make most of my phone calls to and I
21 am involved in work with a lot as well as through the
22 hospital where we do a lot of work with Jackson, is not
23 covered by this scheme and most people here are at least
24 using phone calls to Jackson on a fairly regular basis
25 and it seems like when we're talking about Pocatello,
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1 which is two-and-a-half hours away, we have somewhere
2 that's 25 minutes away that we're not including in this,
3 and many, many people commute and work in Jackson and
4 have frequent phone calls to make, especially in the
5 higher calling times of the day.
6 To me, also another point is that local
7 businesses it seems could be affected detrimentally. You
8 know, people have talked about calling and wanting to
9 shop around and go to Idaho Falls and buy things there by
10 assuring themselves that they're going to save a small
11 amount on the price of whatever article it is and it
12 concerns me that all that energy and time spent on the
13 phone should be perhaps going to support local business
14 and you may be paying a few cents on the dollar for
15 something here or even a little bit more, but I would
16 definitely be concerned about the effect it would have on
17 some local businesses.
18 Personal phone calls to me are a matter of
19 choice. Increased fees would not be a matter of choice.
20 We're not looking at an optional scheme, so those without
21 family or friends or business uses in that proposed area
22 would be placed, I feel, under an unfair financial burden
23 and I feel at least there should be some kind of a
24 referendum so that -- you know, obviously, there is a
25 majority here today that feel that this is a beneficial
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1 scheme to them and their family and friends, but I would
2 at least like to see some kind of a vote or a referendum
3 locally so that those who have some concerns could
4 express those and we have no assurances at this point
5 what the cost would be and I think given that
6 information, I think it would then be an appropriate
7 thing to put that to a vote to the community prior to
8 actually setting in place something which we would have
9 no choice about and that's all I have to say. Thank you.
10 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
11 Do we have any questions?
12 Thank you very much for your testimony.
13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Lorna Hoopes.
15
16 LORNA HOOPES,
17 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
18 sworn, testified as follows:
19
20 THE WITNESS: My name is Lorna Hoopes and I
21 reside at 1009 West Highway 33 in Tetonia. My husband
22 and I own and operate a seed potato and grain farming
23 operation and I guess I was left to speak on behalf of
24 the farmers in Teton Valley, especially the seed
25 farmers. All of our customers, I would venture to guess
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CSB REPORTING HOOPES
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 99 percent of our seed customers, are in the lower valley
2 from Newdale, in this state anyway, clear down to
3 Aberdeen, American Falls, Burley, Twin Falls area. It's
4 long distance for us to call them and especially for them
5 to call us.
6 Also, since General Mills closed the
7 granary in Tetonia, the dry farm grain farmers, the
8 nearest place they can sell their grain and deliver it is
9 at Newdale, which is also long distance. The same with
10 the dairy farmers, they have to ship their milk, I
11 believe the closest place is in Rexburg and so all of the
12 farmers, anyone involved in a farming operation where
13 they sell their commodities is a long distance phone
14 call.
15 Also, it's been voiced the equipment. We
16 have quite a lot of farm equipment and we love to buy our
17 parts locally. It saves us time and travel.
18 Unfortunately, we're not able to do that. Rexburg is the
19 closest place where we get most of our parts. It's been
20 brought up the 800 number. We also have an 800 number at
21 our home, but the problem with 800 numbers is you have to
22 pay for wrong numbers when people call you and I've had
23 to pay for quite a lot of those, so I think somebody else
24 had my number before I got it.
25 Also, I'm on the school board for Teton
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1 School District and we've had a lot of different hearings
2 prior to passing the school bond and there's never been a
3 turnout as large as the one tonight for this. That goes
4 the same, one of the commissioners was telling me for
5 zoning changes they don't have a turnout this big. We're
6 in favor of being included in the local long distance
7 calling area.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much.
9 Do we have any questions?
10 Thank you.
11 (The witness left the stand.)
12 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: It looks like we've
13 covered all those that have signed up. Is there anyone
14 that we've missed or that would like to testify that did
15 not sign up, we would give you that opportunity if you'd
16 like to come forward.
17 Okay, well, this then will conclude our
18 public hearing here tonight. This will conclude this
19 case, this hearing. We've had the technical hearing now
20 and the public hearing. The Commission will be
21 deliberating on this and, hopefully, we will be able to
22 get a decision out shortly. I know that some people have
23 asked what is shortly and I would hope that by the end of
24 '99. No, hopefully, we will be able to by the end of
25 the year, I would hope that we would have a decision
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1 coming forward in that range of time; so thank you very
2 much for coming and those of you that stayed to the
3 bitter end, thank you very much and with that, this
4 hearing will be adjourned.
5 (The Hearing adjourned at 7:55 p.m.)
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1 AUTHENTICATION
2
3
4 This is to certify that the foregoing
5 proceedings held in the matter of the petition from
6 residents of Teton County requesting extended area
7 service (EAS) to the greater Idaho Falls area, commencing
8 at 2:30 p.m., on Tuesday, November 18, 1997, at the Teton
9 West Motor Inn Conference Room, 476 North Main, Driggs,
10 Idaho, is a true and correct transcript of said
11 proceedings and the original thereof for the file of the
12 Commission.
13 Accuracy of all prefiled testimony as
14 originally submitted to the Reporter and incorporated
15 herein at the direction of the Commission is the sole
16 responsibility of the submitting parties.
17
18
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20
CONSTANCE S. BUCY
21 Certified Shorthand Reporter #187
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