EAS6298.docx

1 ASHTON, IDAHO, TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1998, 6:30 P. M.
2
3
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Can we come to order,
5 please? We'd like to get started, if we could. Thank
6 you for coming tonight. We're going to have to ask for
7 your patience in trying to be as orderly as possible.
8 We're filled to overcapacity and we're just going to have
9 to do the best we can.
10 Thank you for coming. My name is Ralph
11 Nelson. I'm a member of the Idaho Public Utilities
12 Commission and I'll be the Chairman of this case this
13 evening. On my right is Commissioner Marsha Smith. The
14 president of the Commission, Dennis Hansen, could not be
15 here tonight.
16 To get us started, this is a hearing in
17 Idaho Public Utilities Commission Case No. GNR-T-97-14,
18 known as in the matter of the petition of customers of
19 Freemont Telcom Company to join the eastern Idaho
20 extended service calling area, and I might just take a
21 minute to say if you read the Island Park News this week
22 and were reading about another case being tied in with
23 this having to do with vacation rates on your phone, that
24 case was just filed and we haven't even decided on a
25 procedure for that case yet and so we will not be
1
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Wilder, Idaho 83676
1 discussing that case this evening. We're just here to
2 hear your views on extended area calling in U S WEST's
3 calling area in eastern Idaho.
4 Before we start, maybe we can take the
5 appearances of the formal parties tonight starting with
6 you, Ms. Hobson.
7 MS. HOBSON: I'm Mary Hobson. I'm the
8 attorney for U S WEST and with me tonight is John Souba.
9 If any of you happen to be U S WEST customers and have
10 questions, feel free to contact us at a break or after
11 the hearing.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
13 Mr. Creamer.
14 MR. CREAMER: Chairman Nelson, I'm Mike
15 Creamer of the law firm of Givens, Pursley in Boise here
16 tonight on behalf of Freemont Telcom. On my right is
17 Mr. John Bauchman and Mr. James Bauchman for Freemont
18 Telcom.
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Mr. Howell.
20 MR. HOWELL: Donald Howell, Deputy Attorney
21 General, with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission Staff
22 and with me tonight are Carolee Hall and Joe Cusick and
23 we'll be able to answer questions and, of course, Carol
24 Cooper is here today.
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: If you didn't hear
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1 that, why, what they're saying is that once we get
2 started, we're going to take testimony for an hour or so
3 and then we're going to give our court reporter a break
4 and during that time if you have questions that don't get
5 answered during the course of the hearing, why, any of
6 these parties would be happy to help you try to answer
7 your questions on this subject or on any other matter
8 that you might have a curiosity about.
9 AUDIENCE: Why can't these people turn
10 around and face us?
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Well, they're going
12 to give a little statement in a minute and then they will
13 turn around and face you. To start us, why, we're going
14 to ask for a brief statement from each of the parties on
15 their position on this matter tonight and I think we'll
16 start with Freemont Telcom.
17 MR. CREAMER: Mr. Bauchman, could you state
18 your name and address for the record, please?
19 MR. BAUCHMAN: Yes. My name is John
20 Bauchman. I'm with Freemont Telcom.
21 MR. CREAMER: Have you previously filed
22 testimony in this case?
23 MR. BAUCHMAN: Yes, I have.
24 MR. CREAMER: And do you have a summary of
25 that testimony that you'd like to read into the record
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1 tonight?
2 MR. BAUCHMAN: Yes, I do.
3 MR. CREAMER: Okay, would you please
4 proceed.
5 MR. BAUCHMAN: Freemont Telcom is in
6 support of the proposed extended area service for our
7 customers. There are several reasons why we are in
8 support of this proposed EAS area. Based on a petition
9 signed by approximately 1,400 residents in Freemont
10 County, we believe a majority of our customers desire
11 extended area or EAS service providing toll free calling
12 throughout southeastern Idaho in the same area in which
13 U S WEST currently offers EAS.
14 We have had numerous customers contact us
15 who could not attend tonight and provided letters to us
16 that they asked that we convey to the Commissioners. We
17 had approximately 180 letters that were in favor of the
18 EAS as proposed and 28 who were against.
19 Other reasons why we believe or why we are
20 in support of the EAS, we believe that there is a
21 community of interest which justifies the proposed EAS
22 area because, number one, many Freemont Telcom customers
23 work, shop and have family outside Freemont County.
24 Secondly, Island Park residents and
25 businesses must place long distance calls to the schools
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1 attended by their children in Ashton or to the county
2 government located in St. Anthony.
3 Thirdly, Freemont County has limited
4 medical facilities and residents must make long distance
5 calls to reach their service providers located outside
6 the existing or current EAS area. Without an EAS area
7 comparable to that available in the adjacent U S WEST
8 exchanges, we believe that Freemont County's economic
9 development will be restricted.
10 We have had people ask us how the proposed
11 EAS rates were arrived at. First, I would like to
12 summarize what the change in these rates are. For a
13 residential customer in St. Anthony and Teton, the rates
14 will change from $11.01 to $24.10 per month. In Ashton
15 and Island Park, the rates would change from $10.11 per
16 month to $24.10.
17 For business customers in St. Anthony and
18 Teton, the rates would change from $28.49 to $42.00. For
19 business customers in Ashton and Island Park, the rates
20 would change from $26.02 to $42.00. The proposed rates
21 are intended to cover the following costs and lost
22 revenues associated with the elimination of long distance
23 charges as well as the increased calling volumes that are
24 anticipated when the EAS area is implemented: There is
25 the loss of toll revenues, the loss of billing and
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CSB REPORTING COLLOQUY
Wilder, Idaho 83676
1 collection revenues which are associated with the lost
2 toll revenues, the loss of access revenues that are paid
3 by the long distance companies for the use of the local
4 company's lines, the proposed elimination of the $1.59
5 per month zone charges, the investment required in new
6 facilities to meet the increased EAS calling volumes, and
7 the regulatory expenses associated with going through an
8 EAS proceeding such as this.
9 The proposed EAS rates and stipulation
10 agreement should generate enough revenue to offset the
11 EAS costs, but will not place Freemont Telcom into an
12 overearning position. We have had questions from
13 customers expressing concern about low income families or
14 people that hardly use their telephones. The proposed
15 EAS rates include an option for measured service at a
16 rate of $16.00 per month which would include 90 minutes
17 of use for calls within Freemont County as well as calls
18 into the expanded EAS calling area. I would like to
19 clarify that the measured service with the 90 free
20 minutes, that includes all calls, not just the calls that
21 have previously been toll calls, so it's a call within
22 Freemont County as well as a call into the expanded EAS
23 area.
24 Also, a low income credit of up to $10.50
25 per month is available for eligible customers through the
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1 Idaho Telecommunications Assistance Program which is
2 administered by the Department of Health and Welfare.
3 These plans are intended to reduce the EAS costs for
4 people who rarely use their phones. That's the end of my
5 comments.
6 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
7 Mr. Bauchman. I don't believe we'll take questions at
8 this time. We'll just have a statement from each of the
9 parties, so thank you.
10 Ms. Hobson? John Souba.
11 MR. SOUBA: Good evening. My name is John
12 Souba from U S WEST Communications. We appreciate being
13 here this evening. Basically, we are here to hear from
14 Freemont's customers. U S WEST has not taken a strong
15 formal position on this case; however, the Company looks
16 forward to supporting the Commission's decision and if
17 that Commission's decision is to grant the Freemont
18 Telcom exchanges entry into the largely U S WEST eastern
19 Idaho calling region, which, as you know, runs from
20 Rexburg to Paris, U S WEST would welcome those exchanges
21 into that region and the company would support that
22 decision by implementing it as soon as possible.
23 Thank you.
24 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
25 Mr. Souba.
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Wilder, Idaho 83676
1 Mr. Howell.
2 MS. HALL: Good evening. My name is
3 Carolee Hall. I'm with the Commission Staff. In June
4 1997, the Commission received a petition for EAS with
5 1,400 signatures from Freemont Telcom customers. At that
6 time the Commission Staff began investigating the
7 reasonableness of establishing EAS routes between the
8 communities in Freemont County and those communities
9 within the U S WEST eastern Idaho region. Freemont
10 serves approximately 5,800 customers in Ashton,
11 Island Park, St. Anthony exchanges and a wire center in
12 Teton.
13 Following the investigation, Staff
14 concluded that there was a community of interest for
15 calling between those exchanges in Freemont and
16 U S WEST.
17 In May 1998, Freemont and Staff entered
18 into a stipulation and settlement agreement. Within this
19 agreement, the proposed rates for EAS were presented.
20 Staff reviewed these proposed rates and felt that they
21 could recover the Company's costs associated with
22 implementing EAS. The basic monthly residential rate, as
23 John has told you, will increase to $24.10 and the
24 business rates would also be increased to $42.00. These
25 rates would allow toll free calling into the entire
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1 eastern Idaho region. Staff estimates that with the
2 increase in these rates, the Company will not earn its
3 overall projected revenues.
4 To mitigate the residential rates, the
5 parties proposed a measured service rate as an
6 alternative to the flat basic rate. The monthly measured
7 service rate is recommended to be $16.00. With this
8 service, Freemont and Staff agreed to include 90 free
9 minutes of local calling. Each minute in excess of the
10 90 minutes would be billed at three cents per minute.
11 This would allow measured service customers to make up to
12 six hours of local calling before reaching the flat
13 $24.10 rate.
14 In addition, the Legislature recently
15 amended the existing Idaho Telecommunications Assistance
16 Program. With this program, qualified low income
17 customers could be provided a $10.50 per month credit
18 toward their phone bill. The criteria for this credit is
19 administered through the Department of Health and Welfare
20 and is calculated as a percentage of income. The
21 percentage has been established at 133 percent of the
22 poverty level. For a family of four, 133 percent of the
23 poverty level calculates to an annual income of
24 approximately $22,000. This credit can be used for
25 either the residential flat rate or measured service.
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1 Finally, the Company and Staff proposed
2 that monthly zone charges of $1.59 for approximately
3 3,500 rural customers be eliminated. In light of the new
4 rates, Freemont agreed to eliminate these monthly
5 charges.
6 In the agreement, Staff and Freemont agreed
7 that the rate for suspension service would be 50 percent
8 of the local service rate for non-measured residential or
9 business service.
10 As part of the stipulation and settlement,
11 Freemont agreed to not seek further rate relief until the
12 Staff completes an audit of the Company's operations or
13 when the Company has 1998 financials available.
14 Based on the calling data and review of the
15 proposed stipulation and settlement agreement, the Staff
16 supports EAS for Freemont customers into the eastern
17 Idaho region. Staff recommends granting the EAS petition
18 and urges the Commission to adopt the stipulation and
19 settlement agreement.
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
21 Ms. Hall.
22 Okay, I believe we're now ready to take
23 testimony from you the members of the public. My
24 intention is to just go down this list in the order
25 you've signed up. When I call your name, why, we'll ask
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1 you come forward and Commissioner Smith will swear you
2 in. All of our testimony is being transcribed and so we
3 have a court reporter here to take your testimony and
4 then we'll ask you a couple of questions, Mr. Howell will
5 ask you a couple of questions, just to get you on the
6 record formally, your name and address, and then you'll
7 be allowed to give your statement and after you give your
8 statement, if something in your testimony would cause one
9 of the formal parties to have a question, why, we'll
10 allow either them or ourselves to ask you a question or
11 two, so we'll start out here with Carl Nelson is the
12 first name on our list.
13
14 CARL J. NELSON,
15 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
16 sworn, testified as follows:
17
18 EXAMINATION
19
20 BY MR. HOWELL:
21 Q Good evening, Mr. Nelson. For you and all
22 of the witnesses that will follow, I will ask you for
23 your full name, spell your last name and please give me a
24 mailing address.
25 A Carl J. Nelson, N-e-l-s-o-n. My mailing
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CSB REPORTING NELSON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 address is HC66 Box 3A, Island Park, 83429.
2 Q And, sir, do you have a statement?
3 A Yes, I do. I am in favor of the EAS or
4 being entered into the EAS system for several reasons. I
5 live in Island Park throughout the summer and my wife has
6 to live in Driggs in the Teton Telecommunications area,
7 so we need as close communications or would like to have
8 as equitably as we can. We also have a farm in Teton
9 County and all of our marketing and whatnot is basically
10 in the Freemont Telcom area which is Newdale and Ashton,
11 so we express a great interest for this communication and
12 this service that may be provided for us.
13 As an economic thing, it's important for us
14 to call from the Driggs area into here and I know that
15 Driggs or Teton Telecom has applied for EAS area and
16 final in closing, I'd like to say if there was any one of
17 us had a loved one in Idaho Falls or Pocatello in the
18 hospital or someplace of that nature, it would be quite
19 important for us to have an economical phone
20 communication to that area.
21 MR. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
22 THE WITNESS: I thank you. Thank you,
23 Mr. Nelson.
24 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Do we have any
25 questions for Mr. Nelson?
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CSB REPORTING NELSON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 MS. HOBSON: No questions.
2 COMMISSIONER NELSON: You're a veteran of
3 our hearings, aren't you, Mr. Nelson? Didn't you testify
4 in Driggs?
5 THE WITNESS: This is not the first one and
6 it's not difficult. I appreciate the opportunity for you
7 folks to be here and permission to grant the general
8 public an opportunity to express their opinion.
9 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you. Did
10 Mrs. Nelson wish to testify? ?
11 THE WITNESS: No, she's not here.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thanks.
13 THE WITNESS: May I be excused?
14 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Certainly.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: The next name on our
17 list is Nita Case.
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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CSB REPORTING NELSON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 NITA CASE,
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, ma'am. I need your, name
9 spell your last and give us your mailing address.
10 A Nita Case, C-a-s-e, Post Office Box 253,
11 Macks Inn, Idaho, 83433.
12 Q And your statement, ma'am?
13 A Pardon me?
14 Q Could you give us your statement?
15 A Yes. I have in my hand several signatures,
16 41 plus, of people that could not be here tonight that
17 are in favor of extended area service. It would be
18 repetitious for me to go over every reason why we want
19 EAS because John Bauchman has very clearly defined the
20 reasons why we need this. For medical reasons, for
21 school purposes, I mean we as Island Park residents can
22 call nowhere. If we wanted to call our neighbor, we
23 could go out in our back yard and yell at them, but other
24 than that, it's all long distance calls.
25 That's my statement.
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
2 Mrs. Case.
3 Do we have any questions for Mrs. Case?
4 THE WITNESS: Who do I submit these to?
5 COMMISSIONER NELSON: If you give those
6 statements to us, why, we'll see that they get in our
7 file.
8 Okay, thank you, Mrs. Case.
9 (The witness left the stand.)
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I'm having a little
11 trouble with this next name. It's J. E., is it Burton?
12 AUDIENCE: Horton.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: All right.
14
15 JEWELL E. HORTON,
16 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
17 sworn, testified as follows:
18
19 THE WITNESS: My name is Jewell E. Horton.
20 I reside in Island Park during the summer and at other
21 times my home is in Pocatello, Idaho. My mailing address
22 is P.O. Box 228, Island Park, 83429. I'm only going to
23 take about two minutes. My wife is an invalid and is not
24 allowed in Island Park for health reasons. Thank
25 goodness I've got a daughter going to school for a
15
CSB REPORTING HORTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 doctorate who takes care of her when I'm up here.
2 I have to call her at least once a day for
3 my own sake to know that she's getting along okay and
4 that adds up to a considerable bill every month.
5 Inclusion into this EAS would save me approximately
6 $75.00 a month on my phone bill. From a personal
7 viewpoint, that's the sum of my testimony.
8 I did stop at one place and discuss this
9 with them at a business in Island Park. This particular
10 business has four different lines in and I was advised by
11 them that they're not in favor of it because it's going
12 to jump their costs tremendously. I can't think of
13 anything else to hold you people up.
14 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay.
15 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
17 Mr. Horton.
18 Do we have any questions of Mr. Horton?
19 Thank you very much sir.
20 (The witness left the stand.)
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Mrs. Case, when you
22 were up here, you left one paper you may want back. You
23 can check with us at the break or something.
24 Our next person signed up to testify is
25 Venna Popping.
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CSB REPORTING HORTON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 MS. POPPING: I'm sorry, I don't have a
2 comment. We didn't realize what we were signing up for.
3 I guess we should have read the top of that page or
4 something, my name and the next two.
5 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you, and if I
6 come to another name and you don't wish to testify or you
7 feel that what you had to say has already been said, if
8 you just want to say pass, why, we'll go to the next
9 person and the next person is Vern Lambert.
10 MR. LAMBERT: I'll pass.
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: All right, thank you,
12 sir.
13 Derrald Baler.
14 MR. BALER: I'll pass.
15 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
16 David Mason.
17
18 DAVID MASON,
19 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
20 sworn, testified as follows:
21
22 THE WITNESS: My name is David Mason. I'm
23 a small business owner in Island Park. David Lloyd Mason
24 I should say, M-a-s-o-n. My mailing address is P.O.
25 Box 255, Island Park, Idaho, 83429. Much of what's been
17
CSB REPORTING MASON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 said pertains to me, also. I have a small business, as
2 I've stated, and much of my phone bill is -- a large part
3 of my phone bill is long distance because everything that
4 I do, I basically buy an awful lot from down in the
5 valley and in the wintertime when my snow equipment
6 breaks down and so forth, I have to get parts and that's
7 always out of Rexburg, St. Anthony and Ashton, and then I
8 have children in school, also, and that's a concern
9 because, you know, at times when they need to check in
10 home with mom or whatever, they can't do that because
11 they can't make a long distance phone call on the
12 school's phones and so I'm very much in favor of EAS.
13 I think that it would be a big benefit to
14 us up in Island Park because we feel kind of at the end
15 of the line and isolated from the world, so this way we
16 could be able to be in touch with the rest of the
17 civilized world and that's all I have to say.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
19 Do we have any questions for Mr. Mason?
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: He's just assuming
21 it's civilized.
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: You may be in the
23 civilized world.
24 (The witness left the stand.)
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Next is Bruce
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CSB REPORTING MASON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Penske.
2
3 BRUCE PENSKE,
4 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
5 sworn, testified as follows:
6
7 THE WITNESS: My name is Bruce Penske,
8 P-e-n-s-k-e. My mailing address is Post Office Box 8,
9 Macks Inn, Idaho, 83433. I'm like a lot of people, I
10 spend about six months a year in Island Park and
11 sometimes go back in the winter, too. My wife because of
12 her job lives in Rexburg. My kids live part of the year
13 with their mother in Idaho Falls. All of those calls are
14 long distance. It would save me a considerable amount of
15 money in long distance rates, so I support the EAS
16 service.
17 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
18 Mr. Penske.
19 (The witness left the stand.)
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Next is John Mucci.
21
22
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24
25
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CSB REPORTING PENSKE
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 JOHN MUCCI,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is John Mucci,
6 M-u-c-c-i. My address is HC66 Box 494, Island Park,
7 Idaho. As a year-round resident up at Last Chance, it is
8 important to me to get as much telephone communication as
9 I can for my money and I do believe with family living in
10 Idaho Falls and most of our association is in Idaho Falls
11 and I would really appreciate it and really support the
12 EAS.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
14 Mr. Mucci.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
17 Vance Derricott.
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20
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22
23
24
25
20
CSB REPORTING MUCCI
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 VANCE DERRICOTT,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Vance Derricott,
6 D-e-r-r-i-c-o-t-t. My address is P.O. Box 126,
7 Macks Inn. I'm a small business owner in Island Park,
8 live there year round, have for the last 26 years and
9 figured today my long distance phone bills for, I only
10 figured them for seven months, but that is April through
11 September and they figured out right at $36.00 a month.
12 Now, that's not too expensive. Of course, then you have
13 your telecom charges on top of that of $104, so my bill
14 each month is 140, but as I understand it, now being a
15 business, I need a line for incoming and outgoing calls
16 and I also need a line for my card printer, you know, for
17 credit cards, so you're going to charge me for two lines,
18 as I understand it, $42.00 each so $84.00, so there I'm
19 going from $36.00 to $84.00 and you know how that makes
20 me feel.
21 Now, I was born and raised in southern
22 Idaho, Bear Lake County, and that's where most of my
23 relatives are and I'd be delighted in calling them, but I
24 don't want to call them that often because I like to go
25 see them and if I learn about them every week, then
21
CSB REPORTING DERRICOTT
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 what's the purpose in going and visiting now and then.
2 You know, that's just a little humor, but I was wondering
3 if it would be possible to receive or to have a reduced
4 rate for those extra lines that we need as a business.
5 As J. Horton said, the one business that
6 Last Chance has, what, four or six or eight lines and
7 that's a whole lot busier than I am, I only need two. Of
8 course, I'm Scotch, but if it would be possible, I'd like
9 to have someone entertain that later if on our extra
10 lines that we need for business if we could receive a
11 reduced rate.
12 Thank you.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
14 Mr. Derricott, we have a question if you don't mind.
15 THE WITNESS: Let me answer it. I'm agin
16 it.
17
18 EXAMINATION
19
20 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
21 Q I appreciate your concerns, Mr. Derricott,
22 and I think this is one of the most serious things that
23 we need to consider in these is the effect on businesses,
24 but let me see if I understand this correctly, your
25 business is in Island Park?
22
CSB REPORTING DERRICOTT (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 A Yes, ma'am.
2 Q So according to Mr. Bauchman's testimony,
3 your current monthly rate is $26.02 which would go per
4 line to 42, so on each line that is an increase of $16.00
5 a month for a total of $32.00, so by my calculation, if
6 you average $36.00 and you're paying an additional 32,
7 you're going to save $4.00 a month.
8 A By my figures, if you want to see them,
9 I've got them right here, what I pay each month --
10 Q You have two lines?
11 A Yes, ma'am.
12 Q Okay. The only thing that's increasing is
13 the basic rate.
14 A Per line.
15 Q Per line, $16.00. From 26.02 to $42.00.
16 A The $16.00 doesn't jive because I figured
17 out right here today and it's $36.00 I pay, plus $104 to
18 Freemont Telcom.
19 Q I'm sorry, I thought the 36 was your total
20 charge.
21 A No, I said plus 104. You must not have
22 heard me say that, ma'am, I'm sorry.
23 Q So how much toll charges do you pay?
24 A $140 average on the seven months, $140 a
25 month, of 36 being my long distance calls, so I'm going
23
CSB REPORTING DERRICOTT (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 to go from 36 with my two lines to $42.00 each line which
2 would be 84, so 84 less 36 is -- I've got that right
3 here -- $48.00 times 12 months is $576 additional.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, you're right, I
5 lost something here. Thank you.
6 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
7 Mr. HOWELL: Mr. Chairman?
8 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Mr. Howell.
9
10 CROSS-EXAMINATION
11
12 BY MR. HOWELL:
13 Q Mr. Derricott, where do your long distance
14 calls go to?
15 A Well, I've got calls in here all over
16 southern Idaho, into Utah, a few into California, Denver,
17 Colorado.
18 Q Do the majority of your calls go to
19 southeast Idaho?
20 A The majority, yes.
21 Q All right, and you understand that those
22 calls made into the new regional calling area would no
23 longer be billed as a toll call?
24 A Yes, sir.
25 Q All right.
24
CSB REPORTING DERRICOTT (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 A But I will be billed $42.00; right?
2 Q That's all, but not toll charges for calls
3 made into the region.
4 A That's right, but right now I'm making
5 $36.00 total long distance calls even out of Idaho.
6 That's including California, Denver, Utah. From 36
7 you're going to up me to 42, plus you're going to add 42
8 for that extra line that I don't have to pay now the 42
9 on, so that's going to be $48.00 a month extra times 12
10 is $576.
11 Q Good math.
12 A I don't get a Christmas present doing that.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay. Well, thank
14 you for your testimony, appreciate it.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
17 Craig Burrell.
18 MR. BURRELL: I pass.
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
20 How about Elizabeth Laden?
21
22
23
24
25
25
CSB REPORTING DERRICOTT (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 ELIZABETH LADEN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Elizabeth Laden,
6 L-a-d-e-n, and my address is Box 410, Island Park,
7 83429. I'm the co-publisher and the editor of the
8 Island Park News in Island Park. As a Freemont Telcom
9 customer, I have caller ID, call waiting, call
10 forwarding, call block, speed calling, three-way calling,
11 selective call rejection, selective call forwarding and
12 automatic recall, but I can't even call and check on my
13 granddaughter in Ashton without paying a long distance
14 rate. I can't call anywhere in Freemont County or the
15 State of Idaho without paying long distance rates.
16 The EAS you're proposing would allow the
17 people in this county to communicate without paying long
18 distance rates, but they would still have to pay an EAS
19 fee. I would rather see toll free calling throughout
20 Freemont County with only a slight increase in the
21 current monthly base fee and EAS serving the rest of the
22 state.
23 The Island Park News has two business
24 lines. One is for voice calls and the other for the
25 Internet. Our phones bills are in the hundreds of
26
CSB REPORTING LADEN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 dollars each month because everywhere we call or fax is
2 long distance and the telephone is one of the most
3 important tools of the news business. 90 percent of our
4 calls are to people and businesses in Idaho. The high
5 phone bills are a detriment to our doing business. We
6 cut corners on expenses like supplies and wages so we can
7 pay our phone bill.
8 I'm also a member of the Island Park Area
9 Chamber of Commerce and Gem Community Team. Both groups
10 are trying to improve the business climate in the Island
11 Park area to attract more year-round businesses. This
12 would boost the economy and add more jobs, but the high
13 phone bills make businesses think twice about locating
14 here, and I didn't put this in my written testimony, but
15 I know this because we are in E-mail contact with people
16 who have questions about the Gem Team plan and I could
17 give you some data on people who have made comments
18 about, well, you know, that's going to cost us a lot.
19 Many businesses interested in relocating to
20 Island Park depend on more than one phone, usually for
21 fax and Internet services. Charging the same EAS rate
22 for every line is cost prohibitive to be some
23 businesses.
24 We do not mind paying the full EAS you
25 propose on both our lines, but how about businesses like
27
CSB REPORTING LADEN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 some resorts with many more lines? There should be some
2 kind of break for them.
3 One of the strongest arguments against EAS
4 comes from those who make no long distance calls because
5 they have no one to call or because the businesses they
6 do call use 800 numbers.
7 I understand the reluctance to support an
8 EAS. Why can't there be a no EAS option for these
9 people? Anyone who chose that option would then pay long
10 distance rates when they do make their occasional long
11 distance call.
12 I know that other phone companies in the
13 United States, namely Southern Bell, offer more than one
14 rate plan. In the south, a person has the option of no
15 EAS service, of EAS to just one parish, or of EAS to the
16 entire state. Why can't that be offered here?
17 The present system, in discriminating
18 against Island Park residents and Freemont County
19 residents as well, is inequitable. EAS as you are
20 proposing it isn't totally fair to everyone either, but I
21 support it because it will give businesses a break. I
22 think even businesses who are serviced by 800 numbers
23 should also support it because whether they see it on
24 their phone bill or not, they are paying for the 800
25 service in the prices they pay to the vendors.
28
CSB REPORTING LADEN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Like the rest of the world, Freemont County
2 is made up of many different types of people with
3 radically different economic and business needs. One
4 system won't help all of us.
5 If Freemont Telcom can offer so many fancy
6 options of how we can make a simple telephone call,
7 surely they can come up with more than one option for how
8 we pay for it. Give us more choices so there is more
9 fairness to all.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
11 Mrs. Laden.
12 Do we have questions? If not, thank you
13 for your thoughtful testimony.
14 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Kay Ridley.
17
18 KAY RIDLEY,
19 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
20 sworn, testified as follows:
21
22 THE WITNESS: My name is Kay Ridley.
23 R-i-d-l-e-y. My address is P.O. Box 268, Macks Inn,
24 Idaho, 83433. I'm totally in favor of the EAS and I'm
25 sure that Messrs. Bauchman know that already. We are
29
CSB REPORTING RIDLEY
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 full-time residents of Island Park and my husband works
2 out at the site and I have no way to contact him except
3 by long distance.
4 My mother lives in Idaho Falls, she's 80
5 years old and it would be nice to be able to call her
6 more often than once a week, but we are totally in favor
7 of it, but I do have some questions that have arisen from
8 some business owners in Island Park and they would like
9 to know about their dedicated lines that go to the possum
10 machines which are the Fish and Game license machines and
11 also to their credit card machines, would that $42.00 be
12 tacked on? I mean, would that $42.00 include those lines
13 that are used for nothing but the credit card machines
14 and so forth? That would? Okay.
15 That's all I have to say. Thank you, sir.
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
17 Mrs. Ridley.
18 Do we have any questions? If not, why,
19 thank you for your testimony.
20 (The witness left the stand.)
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thelma Sharp.
22 MS. SHARP: I'll pass.
23 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
24 Jay Slaughter, is that close?
25 MR. SLAUGHTER: In favor. I'll pass.
30
CSB REPORTING RIDLEY
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
2 Janis Woolf.
3 MR. WOOLF: James.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Excuse me.
5
6 JAMES WOOLF,
7 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
8 sworn, testified as follows:
9
10 EXAMINATION
11
12 BY MR. HOWELL:
13 Q Sir, I need your name, spell your last name
14 and mailing address.
15 A James Woolf, 1120 West 2nd South,
16 St. Anthony, Idaho, W-o-o-l-f.
17 Q And your statement, sir?
18 A Me and my wife are in support of the EAS
19 system. We currently talk on the phone between 3 and 600
20 minutes a month to our family members in the Blackfoot
21 and Shelley area. This would put more money back in our
22 pockets at the end of the month if the EAS was approved.
23 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Hold that mike a
24 little closer, please.
25 MR. HOWELL: Mr. Woolf, how much money a
31
CSB REPORTING WOOLF
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 month savings would that mean?
2 THE WITNESS: 120 on average.
3 MR. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Do we have any other
5 questions for Mr. Woolf?
6 If not, why, thank you for your testimony.
7 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
8 (The witness left the stand.)
9 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
10 Grant Chandler.
11
12 GRANT CHANDLER,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: I'm Grant Chandler,
17 C-h-a-n-d-l-e-r. My address is 151 West 1st North. At
18 the present time I'm chairman of the Board of County
19 Commissioners for Freemont County. Prior to this
20 petition, they talked about the 1,400 signatures, we as
21 county commissioners wrote to Freemont Telcom, also to
22 the IPUC requesting that we be considered under this EAS
23 system, two or three main reasons.
24 One, Island Park has always been a part of
25 the county, but it's almost impossible to communicate
32
CSB REPORTING CHANDLER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 with them. Frequent use of the 911 number from Island
2 Park on non-emergency calls is made just so they don't
3 have to pay the long distance charge. With the EAS
4 system everybody but Lemhi and Custer County which is in
5 our court system would be tied in together which would be
6 a big help.
7 Last month my long distance bill personally
8 was $2.22. My family all lives close. This program will
9 cost me money personally, but I'm really strongly in
10 favor of it and I can speak for the county commissioners
11 on that they're in favor, also.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
13 Commissioner.
14 Do we have any questions? If not, why, I
15 appreciate you coming up tonight.
16 (The witness left the stand.)
17 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Janice Brown.
18
19 JANICE BROWN,
20 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
21 sworn, testified as follows:
22
23 THE WITNESS: My name is Janice Brown.
24 It's B-r-o-w-n. I live at HC66 P.O. Box 542, Island
25 Park, Idaho, 83429. I've been a 16-year resident of
33
CSB REPORTING BROWN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Island Park year round and up until a couple of years
2 ago, I was a 10-year business owner of a small guest
3 lodge up in Island Park and my best recollection of the
4 difficulty in trying to take customer reservations and
5 trying to contact suppliers, you were always banking on
6 having them having an 800 number or hoping that the
7 customer would overcome the obstacle of a long distance
8 phone call, so my recollection as a small business owner
9 that it was very, very important to try to get an EAS for
10 that reason, but most recently, as Elizabeth Laden
11 mentioned, I am chair of the Gem Community Team and the
12 most recent draft development plan that we've created
13 really had tremendous support for an EAS.
14 The communications section of the plan
15 identified that as one of the key things to try to
16 encourage additional business development and, most
17 importantly, to try to make family life in Island Park
18 more attractive. It has been quite difficult to attract
19 good employees to the area without a school and without a
20 few other things and just having better communications
21 would be a real advantage to try to improve our labor
22 pool up in Island Park, so as a whole, the Gem Community
23 plan is going to advocate this kind of improved
24 communications.
25 Finally, I'm the director of a nonprofit
34
CSB REPORTING BROWN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 organization that has offices in both Island Park and
2 Ashton and on a daily basis we are calling one another.
3 It is my guess that because we have eight lines between
4 the two offices that we will probably be saving somewhere
5 in the neighborhood of 2 to $300 a month and that will
6 add up to quite a substantial savings over a year
7 period.
8 It would make sense to us, however, to have
9 a distinguished line -- you know, we have fax lines in
10 both offices, Internet, modem kind of connections, too,
11 that you try to distinguish a fee for those lines that
12 are dedicated and lines that would be used for long
13 distance calling, but I truly believe this would be a
14 benefit to us and to others who have frequent
15 communications between two towns that are so close
16 together.
17 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, does that
18 complete your statement?
19 THE WITNESS: It does.
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
21 Do we have any questions?
22 Commissioner Smith.
23
24
25
35
CSB REPORTING BROWN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 EXAMINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
4 Q My question just is you have eight lines in
5 each of those offices?
6 A Four each.
7 Q Four each and those are business lines?
8 A Each one of them. Even with the increased
9 cost --
10 Q You're still saving?
11 A Yes, that's what I was going to say is we
12 have a substantial phone bill.
13 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
14 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Next we have Judy
17 Johnson.
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
36
CSB REPORTING BROWN (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 JUDY JOHNSON,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: I'm Judy Johnson,
6 J-o-h-n-s-o-n, mailing address of Post Office Box 366,
7 Ashton, 83420. I am pastor of the United Methodist
8 Church here in Ashton and as I go from home to hospital
9 to nursing home, people have told me that they do not
10 call their neighbors and their family as much because of
11 the long distance call fee that they have.
12 Also, as someone who becomes involved in
13 family matters, I have reason to call Homemakers and
14 other state agencies in Idaho Falls and I don't always
15 know the 800 numbers, so I find I am -- they're not
16 always in the phone book, so I just call them and it does
17 add up.
18 The other thing is that I am on a
19 five-county board of guardians. This is a board that is
20 legislated by state statute. Normally there is one
21 county per board, but because of population, we have five
22 counties and every time we want to talk to each other, it
23 is long distance and it would be nice to do our business
24 without personal long distance charges because this is a
25 voluntary board even though it's state mandated.
37
CSB REPORTING JOHNSON
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 That's all.
2 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
3 Mrs. Johnson.
4 Do we have any questions? Okay, thank you
5 for your testimony.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
8 Bud Adams.
9 MR. ADAMS: Bob.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Bob, excuse me.
11
12 BOB ADAMS,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: My name is Bob Adams,
17 A-d-a-m-s. Mailing address is 13 North Bridge,
18 St. Anthony, 83445. I have a tax preparation business in
19 St. Anthony. Currently we have five phone lines and we
20 also have a telemarketing bid that we're currently
21 putting together which will increase our phone lines by
22 another 10. We're in a unique situation because we have
23 such a high volume of phone lines coming in, but our
24 usage for long distance calling is very limited.
25 My actual long distance bills are longer
38
CSB REPORTING ADAMS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 calling to Island Park than to anywhere else and a local
2 Freemont County calling ability for EAS for here would be
3 extremely beneficial to us, but 15 phones lines at $42.00
4 is a little on the high side, especially when 10 of them
5 have no outgoing call capability, so consideration for
6 businesses with those type of a business need would be
7 more appropriate.
8 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Does that complete
9 your statement, sir?
10 THE WITNESS: I hope so.
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Do we have any
12 questions?
13
14 CROSS-EXAMINATION
15
16 BY MR. HOWELL:
17 Q Mr. Adams, have you talked to the Company
18 about other facility arrangements that might be able to
19 meet your needs?
20 A They have been really generous to come in
21 and visit with us in our office and going over those
22 options, but they are stuck at this point in time because
23 EAS is all or none and looking at the fact that we're
24 going to have 15 phone lines, I'm probably in the rarity
25 of saying I have to be against it simply because from a
39
CSB REPORTING ADAMS (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 business perspective from what we're doing it's very
2 harmful.
3 Mr. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I might just ask, did
5 they talk to you about a possibility of something like a
6 T1 line?
7 THE WITNESS: We already have another 115k
8 line put in right now. We do a lot of Internet work as
9 well, but as far as a T1 line, the overall cost on a
10 monthly basis would be just a little bit more than the
11 other. It would be substantial, but they're really good
12 to work with for us.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you,
14 appreciate your testimony.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Lynn Brown.
17 MR. BOWEN: Probably Bowen.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Bowen, excuse me.
19 MR. BOWEN: I'll pass.
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: All right, thank you,
21 sir.
22 And this would be Mrs. Nash. I'm sorry, I
23 can't read the first name.
24
25
40
CSB REPORTING ADAMS (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 GERALEE NASH,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: I am here --
6 MR. HOWELL: Mrs. Nash, I need you to spell
7 your last name and give me your address.
8 THE WITNESS: Geralee Nash, N-a-s-h,
9 Post Office Box 64, Macks Inn, Idaho, 83433. I am here
10 in support of the extended area service and as I arrived,
11 I presented seven statements in support of for exhibits
12 and one against to Carolee Hall and as a personal
13 statement, I would just like to say to you that Freemont
14 Telcom has really been nice to work with. I know we
15 weren't all happy with the prospect of working with
16 Bauchmans and it's turned out very well in my opinion and
17 thank you for that.
18 I'd also like to say that extending my
19 service, which everyone has stated here, there's
20 absolutely nothing that I can call except right in my own
21 town, extending that service would allow for me as a
22 mother, as again has been stated, to have a little
23 comfort in knowing that the children are able to call.
24 One thing that wasn't stated which is that
25 the elementary does allow children to call if they're in
41
CSB REPORTING NASH
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 distress and that is nice, but again, that takes away
2 money from my elementary students' budget and so they're
3 allowing my children to call on an elementary level, but
4 still, the money I'm sure could be used better
5 elsewhere. The high school is not allowed, and that was
6 already stated here, they are not allowed to call home.
7 And, again, I'm sorry, I shouldn't
8 reiterate everything, but I wanted you to know that I
9 do -- well, all of our medical facilities that we use are
10 in Rexburg or south and I have a daughter and a new
11 grandbaby that it's just a personal choice to call, but I
12 would enjoy calling her and she would be included in this
13 area extended service in the Rockland area, so I would
14 really appreciate that and that's the close of my
15 statement.
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
17 Mrs. Nash.
18 (The witness left the stand.)
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Does Mr. Nash wish to
20 testify, also?
21 MR. NASH: Yes.
22
23
24
25
42
CSB REPORTING NASH
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 JAMES NASH,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: James Nash, N-a-s-h, P.O.
6 Box 64, Macks Inn, Idaho, 83433. One thing my wife
7 forgot to mention, she's the owner and operator of a
8 small business in Island Park and anyway, I wanted to
9 mention that for her. Many of the things that we've
10 already discussed tonight as far as the county
11 government, the hospitals, the schools, everything from
12 Island Park is long distance. Last month my power bill
13 was -- power bill, sorry. I work for the power company,
14 but my phone bill last month was $146. The month before
15 it was 121. Lately it's been going up and a lot of the
16 reason, I believe, is I have teenagers in my house, I
17 have three of them. That's one thing we haven't
18 discussed tonight is teenagers. I have three female
19 teenagers. They love to talk to their friends. Their
20 father who sometimes they think is very cruel tries to
21 limit them to the amount of time they spend on the phone
22 because of these long distance charges.
23 On occasions the girls are requested by
24 their father to pay for their own long distance. This
25 also puts a crimp in their style, let alone mine. I
43
CSB REPORTING NASH
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 wanted to mention that tonight, also, that the kids
2 really get hurt. They can't call their friends, they
3 can't plan parties. It's very difficult and it's a
4 hardship on them as well as us as adults, because a lot
5 of times if we want to call our children at someone
6 else's house to find out what time for sure they're going
7 to be home, and that is a prerequisite, I guess you
8 should say, to my children going other places, if they're
9 going to be late, they are required by mom and dad to
10 call home and say, Dad, I'm going to be 15, 20 minutes
11 late, is that all right or we're going over to so and
12 so's house instead of here, is that all right so that I
13 know where they are at, and the people that they're
14 staying with, I'm sure they don't enjoy the long distance
15 phone calls any more than I do, so we are in favor
16 definitely of this extended calling area.
17 Thank you very much.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you, Mr. Nash.
19 (The witness left the stand.)
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Stacy Wynn.
21
22
23
24
25
44
CSB REPORTING NASH
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 STACY WYNN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Stacy Wynn,
6 W-y-n-n. I'm at P.O. Box 609, Ashton Idaho, 83420. I am
7 in favor of the extended area service. Like all the
8 other people, I just wanted to basically state my opinion
9 for all of the reasons that have been given previously.
10 That's it.
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
12 (The witness left the stand. )
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Judy Davis.
14
15 JUDITH DAVIS,
16 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
17 sworn, testified as follows:
18
19 THE WITNESS: My name is Judith L. Davis,
20 D-a-v-i-s. My address is 2221 East 400 North in
21 St. Anthony, Idaho, 83445. The only additional comments
22 that I have is that I have been a Realtor in the area for
23 about 21 years, servicing Ashton down to Jefferson
24 County. My office is located in Rexburg, my home is in
25 St. Anthony and I saw a tremendous difference in my phone
45
CSB REPORTING DAVIS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 bill from the office when we went to the calling area for
2 Rexburg and south, and I have had clients who have come
3 into the area who would have looked at properties in the
4 Freemont County area and north, but because we were not
5 part of a greater calling service, they simply would not
6 even look at properties, so I think the economic growth
7 of Freemont County very much depends on the extended
8 calling service area.
9 Thank you.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
11 Mrs. Davis.
12 (The witness left the stand.)
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I'm having a little
14 trouble with this one. I believe it's Palmer, either
15 Rebecca or Patricia. Anyway, she signed up with Larry --
16 no, excuse me. She lives at Box 371 in Ashton. Well, if
17 you realize you've been missed, why, if you will show me
18 your hand later on, why, we'll get you taken care of.
19 Next is Lawrence who lives at 528 North
20 2100 East in St. Anthony and I'm sorry, I can't read your
21 last name.
22 Jake Blanchard and his wife Gail also
23 signed up from Chester.
24 AUDIENCE: They left.
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Did they leave?
46
CSB REPORTING DAVIS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Thank you. Ruth Peek? Is it Peck?
2 Keith Wilham.
3 MR. WILHAM: No comment.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
5 Lowell Williams?
6
7 LOWELL WILLIAMS,
8 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
9 sworn, testified as follows:
10
11 THE WITNESS: My name is Lowell Williams,
12 W-i-l-l-i-a-m-s. I live at 350 East 1st South in
13 St. Anthony, 83445. I am very much in favor of the EAS
14 offering and I want to compliment the Bauchmans and the
15 work that they have done with Freemont Telcom since
16 they've taken over. I was very much against U S WEST
17 selling these exchanges and I think what we're faced with
18 today is probably the result of selling off small
19 exchanges. We could be part of the greater EAS offering
20 of U S WEST at a much reduced rate.
21 I think from some of the testimony that
22 you've had here today that the Commission and the
23 U S WEST -- excuse me, the Bauchman people, the Freemont
24 Telcom would have a great opportunity to make certain
25 adjustments and changes, such as these incoming lines for
47
CSB REPORTING WILLIAMS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Mr. Adams and some of the other problems that people have
2 with multiple exchanges in businesses especially.
3 This is about all I have to say.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you,
5 Mr. Williams.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Ellen Lynch.
8 Is Ms. Lynch here?
9 Norma Parker.
10
11 NORMA PARKER,
12 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
13 sworn, testified as follows:
14
15 THE WITNESS: I don't have a great deal to
16 add, but I do have a couple of things that probably are a
17 little different --
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Mrs. Parker, could we
19 get your name and address?
20 THE WITNESS: Excuse me. Norma Parker,
21 P-a-r-k-e-r, 2295 East 600 North, St. Anthony, Idaho,
22 83445.
23 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
24 THE WITNESS: I sympathize with the
25 Reverend that spoke. I'm a service relief society in my
48
CSB REPORTING PARKER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 LDS ward. I have occasion to call very often to Idaho
2 Falls for those who are ill, have surgery or whatever.
3 We also have two daughters who live in Idaho Falls. I
4 have 12 grandchildren who live there who frequently want
5 to call grandma and want to invite grandma and grandpa to
6 the ball games or their school activities. It isn't as
7 much a hardship on my husband and myself as it is my
8 children that want to call home and my grandchildren.
9 I brought three letters, all in favor
10 tonight of this action and one has a fax machine, the
11 other one is on the intercom and the one friend of mine
12 would be considered lower income. They have two
13 daughters who go to ISU and it's really a hardship for
14 them to call because, naturally, they want to know if
15 their children arrive safely when they go down,
16 especially in the winter on the roads. When they leave,
17 they want to know they get there and when they're coming
18 home, they want to know when they left. I'm totally in
19 favor of it.
20 I also had a concern for those who have low
21 income or who live alone and don't use the phone often,
22 but it seems like the homework has been addressed on
23 that. There's been requirements met, especially with the
24 reduction through the state and with the -- I can't
25 remember what you called it -- the 90-minute addition and
49
CSB REPORTING PARKER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 so I would just like to say that I think it would be very
2 beneficial to our whole community and I am strongly in
3 favor of this.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
5 Mrs. Parker.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Next we have Kay
8 Bodily.
9
10 KAY BODILY,
11 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
12 sworn, testified as follows:
13
14 THE WITNESS: I also support the EAS --
15 MR. HOWELL: Ma'am, I need your name and
16 address.
17 THE WITNESS: Oh.
18 MR. HOWELL: You don't get a bad grade. We
19 do need your name and address.
20 THE WITNESS: I am a teacher, so I should
21 get a bad grade. I'm Kay Bodily, B-o-d-i-l-y, 2162 East
22 300 North, St. Anthony, 83445, and like I said, I do
23 support this proposal and I decided I ought to figure out
24 if this was going to help me or hinder me and so if I pay
25 the $11.07 and it goes up to $24.00, that's a difference
50
CSB REPORTING BODILY
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 of $13.00.
2 All right, I'm on U S WEST in-Idaho calling
3 which is $10.00 for 120 minutes, so then I would pay --
4 it would be an addition of only $3.00. I'm sure that I
5 would use more because I always go over my allotted time
6 which is nine cents a minute after, so that's the
7 economic reason and the reason is that we have, my
8 husband and I have, aged parents in the Idaho Falls area
9 and we would call them more often if we had this
10 opportunity. We have children in Idaho Falls and
11 Pocatello and grandchildren there.
12 We live one mile out of the Idaho Falls
13 extended area, so we said why didn't we build a mile the
14 other direction, but we didn't and we love Freemont
15 County. I would save as I call now about $30.00 a month,
16 that's the way I figure. That isn't a lot to some of
17 these businesses that have astronomical costs, but to us,
18 that is quite a bit.
19 The other concern that I would like to
20 address is I have this U S WEST in-Idaho calling. I have
21 Imagicom calling. I have done everything I can to cut my
22 costs and I have reduced them quite a bit, but I still
23 get over 75 to $100 a month on my phone bills, so this is
24 why I would like to see this.
25 Thank you.
51
CSB REPORTING BODILY
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you, ma'am.
2 (The witness left the stand.)
3 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Did Paul Bodily wish
4 to testify, also?
5 MR. BODILY: I'll pass, but I'm in
6 agreement.
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
8 Janet Carter.
9 MS. CARTER: I wish to pass, but I'm in
10 agreement with the Bodilys.
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
12 Fred Hossner.
13
14 FRED HOSSNER,
15 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
16 sworn, testified as follows:
17
18 THE WITNESS: My name is Fred Hossner,
19 H-o-s-s-n-e-r. I reside in Ashton, Idaho, at P.O.
20 Box 562. I'm also the director of business operations of
21 Freemont County schools and that's what I will address.
22 I have a letter here from Mike Collers, district
23 superintendent on behalf of the school district in favor
24 of this proposal.
25 Several of the reasons you've already heard
52
CSB REPORTING HOSSNER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 tonight, basically where we are, Freemont County schools,
2 we do have a service area in Island Park and all of the
3 calls going from our Ashton schools are long distance up
4 to the Island Park area. This includes our bus
5 transportation and the students and things of this
6 nature, so it would facilitate the district to have this
7 new EAS billing.
8 We also make several calls south, Idaho
9 Falls, Pocatello area, with school business, so we are in
10 favor of this service and I have a letter from the
11 superintendent.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Does that complete
13 your statement, Mr. Hossner?
14 THE WITNESS: Yes.
15 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
16 Any questions? Okay, appreciate your
17 testimony.
18 (The witness left the stand.)
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: We're going to take a
20 ten-minute break at this point and we'll come back and
21 finish. We have ten or twelve people left to testify,
22 but our court reporter needs a break so we'll be in
23 recess for ten minutes.
24 (Recess.)
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: If we could come to
53
CSB REPORTING HOSSNER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 order, please. Okay, thank you. Our next witness is
2 Floyd Gardner. Is Mr. Gardner here? I want you to know
3 that you've got a lot smaller audience, but your
4 testimony is just as important.
5
6 FLOYD GARDNER,
7 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
8 sworn, testified as follows:
9
10 THE WITNESS: My name is Floyd Gardner,
11 G-a-r-d-n-e-r. I live at 2685 North River Road,
12 St. Anthony, Idaho. I'd just like to say that I was one
13 of the people that signed one of the 1,400 names, but I
14 was kind of misled a little bit. When they first brought
15 this out, it was going to cost 3 to $6.00 more and now
16 it's double, more than double, our bill, so I'm a little
17 bit upset about that and also I have a small business.
18 I have four lines and I reiterate the same
19 things that these other businesses say. You know, I can
20 only use one line at a time. I've got one on a fax
21 machine, one on a credit card and one on the possum and
22 that will be quite a bit more increase in expenses for
23 us.
24 I went back through all my phone bills for
25 the year and I think there were about $50.00 total for
54
CSB REPORTING GARDNER
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 the four lines in the Idaho area and that's basically all
2 I have to say.
3 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, Mr. Gardner,
4 thank you. We have a question from Commissioner Smith.
5
6 EXAMINATION
7
8 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
9 Q Just a question, Mr. Gardner, based on
10 testimony I actually heard in another case and I was
11 curious what your business is.
12 A It's a retail store.
13 Q It's a retail, okay. When we did some
14 hearings over in the Wilder/Homedale area, a businessman
15 came and I think he was in the business of, like, auto
16 repairs or equipment and he had opposed an earlier EAS
17 that the Commission had implemented for the same reason
18 you did, but he came that night to say that he had been
19 wrong, that his business had increased tremendously due
20 to the additional people that could call in and I didn't
21 know if you saw any potential at all for that in your
22 business seeing that long distance being a barrier for
23 you increasing what you do.
24 A I don't think I would see an increase in
25 business as far as that. We're mostly a tourist business
55
CSB REPORTING GARDNER (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 and that type of a business and I don't think that people
2 that are going patronize me are going to call me from out
3 of the area.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: All right, thanks.
5
6 CROSS-EXAMINATION
7
8 BY MR. HOWELL:
9 Q Mr. Gardner, have you looked into the
10 possibility of having your credit card line that you have
11 on a dedicated line of having that use put on your
12 regular business phone or some other alternative to a
13 dedicated line?
14 A Well, the problem there is if we have a lot
15 of people coming in doing credit cards or if -- I had it
16 that way before and for some reason if I was talking on
17 the phone in the back and somebody turned on the credit
18 machine, credit card, it cut me off.
19 AUDIENCE: It may cost more him in the long
20 run, too, because he may not get his authorization
21 numbers and he'd lose that sale.
22 Q BY MR. HOWELL: Let me ask you one more
23 question. Have you looked into the possibility of using
24 the credit card and possum on the same line? Is there an
25 opportunity --
56
CSB REPORTING GARDNER (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 A They won't let you.
2 Q Who's "they"?
3 A Fish and Game.
4 Mr. HOWELL: Thank you, sir.
5 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
6 (The witness left the stand.)
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I am having trouble
8 reading this next name. It's Teddy --
9 MR. STRONKS: Stronks.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: -- Stronks?
11
12 TEDDY STRONKS,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 EXAMINATION
17
18 BY MR. HOWELL:
19 Q Sir, I need your name and address for the
20 record, please.
21 A My name is Teddy Stronks, S-t-r-o-n-k-s. I
22 live at 337 Cherry Street, Ashton, Idaho.
23 Q And do you have a statement, sir?
24 A Yes, I do. I'd like to say that I'm in
25 favor of EAS and the reason being is I've been in
57
CSB REPORTING STRONKS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 business for 20 years on my own and then I'm recently
2 employed by an employer that has a satellite store and I
3 am that store and we communicate with Rexburg every day
4 and this would be a very beneficial thing for us as a
5 business.
6 Also, I serve on the Ashton City Council
7 and I feel that the Ashton Council is in favor of this as
8 well and I rest my case.
9 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you,
10 Mr. Stronks.
11 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Any questions?
13 Thanks for sticking with us tonight.
14 THE WITNESS: You bet.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Joan Palmer. Ria
17 Palmer?
18 This is a Ms. Jensen.
19 MS. JENSEN: Connie?
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Connie, you bet.
21
22
23
24
25
58
CSB REPORTING STRONKS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 CONNIE JENSEN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Connie Jensen,
6 J-e-n-s-e-n. I live at -- no, my P.O. Box is 665 and I'm
7 in Ashton. I don't have any titles. I'm basically a
8 homemaker, but I have two health-problem children. One
9 is epileptic and one is diabetic and basically the phone
10 calls that we do at our home is, they average about $100
11 or more a month and it's all Rexburg and Idaho Falls to
12 doctors during the day when you can't get the lower rates
13 on most of the average lower rate things.
14 I think basically for our home it would cut
15 the cost, which I'm very much in favor of this EAS
16 passing, I think basically it would save us about $75.00
17 on an average a month and I guess that's my statement.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
19 (The witness left the stand.)
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Jeff Raybould.
21
22
23
24
25
59
CSB REPORTING JENSEN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 JEFF RAYBOULD,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: Jeff Raybould,
6 R-a-y-b-o-u-l-d. I'm in favor of the EAS. When Freemont
7 Telcom had their informational meetings to let the public
8 know how their system would operate when they were
9 negotiating with U S WEST, they indicated that their
10 users would have all of the same access and capabilities
11 that U S WEST customers would have. I think that
12 Freemont Telcom is just trying to follow through on the
13 commitments that they made when they took over these
14 exchanges and I think that in the long run it will
15 benefit the whole Freemont Telcom area.
16 Thank you.
17 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
18 Mr. Raybould. Could you give us your address in
19 St. Anthony?
20 THE WITNESS: Excuse me, 301 North 1500
21 East, St. Anthony.
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
23 (The witness left the stand.)
24 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Gene Hess.
25
60
CSB REPORTING RAYBOULD
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 GENE HESS,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Gene Hess. I am a
6 potato farmer. I got off a spud planter to come here
7 tonight and I didn't want to. I am much in favor. There
8 are 31 potato farmers still in Ashton. 15 years ago
9 there were, like, 80. It's a tough business. There's
10 only one farm equipment dealer in Ashton, one in
11 St. Anthony, that's all there is in the county. There's
12 one car dealer in the county, one truck/car dealer.
13 We are potato farmers. We sell seed spuds
14 and almost everything we sell is south of Rexburg. In
15 the spring, my two brothers and I, our phone bills
16 probably run $500 a month calling mostly potato customers
17 in the evening. We figure it would save us a minimum of
18 180 bucks a month. We can't call a bearing house,
19 electric motor repair facility, there are none in this
20 county. There are no farm supply stores.
21 We run five semi trucks in season. We have
22 a cell phone in all of them. It's a long distance call
23 to Rexburg to hook up with the cell phone every time we
24 do. Sunday I get clean occasionally and church I have
25 obligations sometimes in Island Park and it's a long
61
CSB REPORTING HESS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 distance call again.
2 My children are much interested in the
3 Internet, long distance calls again. I have family in
4 Idaho Falls and Pocatello. I would love to communicate
5 with them more. We are much in favor of this expanded
6 area. The only thing we'd like is maybe you'd run it
7 from West Yellowstone to Salt Lake to Boise. I believe
8 that's the end of what I have to say.
9 Thank you.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you,
11 Mr. Hess.
12 Any questions?
13 Mr. HOWELL: Mr. Hess, could we get your
14 address, sir?
15 THE WITNESS: I'm sorry, 3712 East 1100
16 North, Ashton.
17 MR. HOWELL: Thank you.
18 THE WITNESS: I've lived there 35 years and
19 they've changed the address three times.
20 (The witness left the stand.)
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
22 Carroll Sweet.
23
24
25
62
CSB REPORTING HESS
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 CARROLL SWEET,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: Carroll Sweet, S-w-e-e-t,
6 Post Office Box 201, Macks Inn. I think the whole
7 population of Island Park was here tonight at one point,
8 so I think that tells you something about how we support
9 this. I'm a year-round resident of Island Park and I'll
10 tell you in the winter there are so few of us there and
11 that's all we can call without raising a big bill. I
12 think it's really important for us to stop feeling so cut
13 off from the rest of the world. In some ways we like it,
14 but when we have to come to the valley for every single
15 service practically, it gets very expensive and in the
16 wintertime when you have to drive 30 miles down a
17 slippery highway for a piece of lettuce, you want to call
18 ahead to find out if they've still got it and it adds up.
19 My phone bills are astronomical. I have
20 three lines into my house and I would hope that I could
21 have the measured service on two and have the extended on
22 the other. I don't know how that works, but that would
23 be something I think that you might want to look at,
24 especially for the businesses maybe some kind of a
25 measured service, because I have one that I just use for
63
CSB REPORTING SWEET
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 my computer. I would want extended service on that. I
2 pay $.10 a minute and I can cruise the Internet pretty
3 fast because I'm always worried about the cost. Anyhow,
4 I just want to be on the record as being in favor of this
5 and I hope that we can get it.
6 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
7 Mrs. Sweet. We have a question here.
8
9 EXAMINATION
10
11 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
12 Q Would you still be in favor if you knew
13 that the way it works is all your lines had to be one or
14 the other?
15 A Yes, I still would. I had to get the three
16 lines just to get a phone, so I'm used to paying through
17 the nose living in Island Park.
18 Q But think of your quality of life.
19 A Absolutely.
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
21 (The witness left the left the stand.)
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you. Our next
23 witness is Kelly Rydalch.
24 Lavall Rydalch?
25 Robert Bauchman?
64
CSB REPORTING SWEET (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 MR. BAUCHMAN: I'll pass.
2 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you, sir. Our
3 next witness is Valerie Clark.
4
5 VALERIE CLARK,
6 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
7 sworn, testified as follows:
8
9 THE WITNESS: Valerie Clark, C-l-a-r-k,
10 3642 Highway 32, Ashton. I'm in favor for an extended
11 area service for the following reasons: Any call to a
12 cell phone is long distance. If I call my husband's cell
13 phone and he is parked in the driveway, I'm still making
14 a long distance phone call. Any profession that I have
15 to call in Rexburg, Idaho Falls, any government service,
16 any doctor or lawyer, those types of things are during
17 business hours and that is when the rates are the very
18 highest.
19 In order to avoid that, I have signed up
20 with a national phone service. I dial in their code and
21 I bypass Freemont Telcom, so the money that I would save
22 on my long distance bill will not come out of Freemont
23 Telcom's pocket and I want to testify as an experienced
24 shopper that money that goes back into my pocket will be
25 put into the economy of eastern Idaho and I would rather
65
CSB REPORTING CLARK
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 see my money go to the eastern Idaho businesses than a
2 national phone service.
3 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
4 Mrs. Clark.
5 Questions? If not, why, we appreciate your
6 testimony.
7 (The witness left the stand.)
8 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
9 John Pymm.
10
11 JOHN PYMM,
12 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
13 sworn, testified as follows:
14
15 THE WITNESS: My name is John Pymm. Last
16 name is P-y-m-m. My address is Post Office Box 891,
17 Ashton. I am presently employed as the principal at
18 North Freemont High School and on behalf of the high
19 school and our budgetary concerns, our monthly long
20 distance phone bills average between about 128 and $150 a
21 month. Now, admittedly, not all of those calls are made
22 within what would be the extended area; however, a vast
23 majority of them are; consequently, that is a big chunk
24 of money that is not going back towards textbooks and
25 other materials that our students need to have a quality
66
CSB REPORTING PYMM
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 education, so we, as a school staff, et cetera, would be
2 for that. It would be helpful to us.
3 As a resident of the Ashton area, recent
4 resident, because I could not convince my wife's sisters
5 to move here with us, it would be of great personal
6 benefit to me to have the extended calling service for my
7 personal budget and so I am strongly in support of it
8 both from the perspective of the school and as a
9 homeowner.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you, sir,
11 appreciate your testimony.
12 AUDIENCE: I have a question for you.
13 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Sir, if you'd like to
14 testify, we'll give you a chance here after just two more
15 witnesses, but we're just not set up to get into a
16 question and answer session. When the hearing is over,
17 I'd be happy to talk to you, though.
18 AUDIENCE: All right.
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
20 Richard Law.
21
22
23
24
25
67
CSB REPORTING PYMM
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 RICHARD LAW,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Richard Law and I
6 would like to speak tonight in favor of the EAS
7 agreement. I'd also like to thank Freemont Telcom for
8 the fine job that they have done in servicing the
9 customers of Freemont County. James and John, I think
10 you guys have done a great job. I am the counselor
11 currently at North Freemont High School. I make a number
12 of long distance phone calls as part of my job as the
13 counselor. Most of these calls are made within this
14 extended calling area, so I know for a fact that our long
15 distance phone calls that are made at the school,
16 especially those phone calls that I make, would be
17 covered largely by this new extended area.
18 Also, I'm a past city council member in the
19 City of St. Anthony and as I worked on economic
20 development issues as a city councilman, I know how hard
21 we worked with the other governments within Freemont
22 County to try and develop a sense of community not just
23 within our separate communities but in Freemont County as
24 a whole and I know that this extended calling area would
25 help facilitate and enhance that ability.
68
CSB REPORTING LAW
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 I'm currently the chairman of South
2 Freemont Economic Development and I can say once again
3 that as I work with the other people within our county
4 who are dedicated to economic development, I believe that
5 having this extended calling area would allow us to work
6 more closely with one another and perhaps overcome some
7 of the isolation that is sometimes felt.
8 I concur with those who have expressed
9 concerns who live in Island Park. As I work with the
10 students who live in that area, many times they feel
11 isolated, they feel it's difficult or very expensive for
12 them to communicate with their friends. It's difficult
13 for them to communicate from school back to their homes
14 when they become ill. I would like to say that we do try
15 and facilitate communication wherever necessary and
16 wherever possible so that students don't feel too
17 isolated, but it would be so much easier if they could
18 just use the phone that's in the lobby and not have to
19 worry about punching in credit card numbers, et cetera.
20 Finally, as a homeowner, I have many
21 friends and relatives throughout the eastern Idaho area.
22 It would save me a great deal of money every month if I
23 could just go to my phone and call all of my friends and
24 relatives from Island Park to the Utah line, basically
25 and check up on them, see how they're doing. It would
69
CSB REPORTING LAW
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 just, I think, in all ways benefit the county and benefit
2 me personally.
3 Thank you.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Mr. Law, thank you
5 for your testimony.
6 MR. HOWELL: Mr. Law, could I get your
7 address?
8 THE WITNESS: Sorry, Richard Law, L-a-w,
9 and my address is 640 West 100 North, St. Anthony,
10 83445.
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, appreciate your
12 testimony.
13 (The witness left the stand.).
14 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Our next witness is
15 Susan Steinman.
16
17 SUSAN STEINMAN,
18 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
19 sworn, testified as follows:
20
21 THE WITNESS: My name is Susan Steinman.
22 My address is 187 Cherry Street in Ashton, Idaho,
23 S-t-e-i-n-m-a-n. I waited until the end to make sure
24 that what I was going to say wasn't said earlier and I
25 guess the first thing I'd like to say is that I am very
70
CSB REPORTING STEINMAN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 much in favor of the EAS expanded calling area for two
2 reasons. The first one being that my husband and I own a
3 farm in the Ashton area and our marketing area is
4 basically Rexburg and south, so in order to do business,
5 we are constantly making long distance phone calls.
6 On the other hand, I can't say that's
7 exactly true because what we've basically done is taken
8 our business elsewhere, meaning that we are both
9 customers of Commnet Cellular and U.S. Cellular which
10 already has an expanded calling area, so we can do
11 business that way. I've also informed my kids, I
12 prohibit long distance phone calls. I don't allow them
13 to use the phone to make long distance phone calls to
14 call outside of our calling area except using the cell
15 phone, because if I'm already paying for 110 minutes, I'd
16 just as soon use them, so that's basically what we do for
17 long distance.
18 I'm also an AT&T long distance customer
19 which means I have an 800 number incoming into my house
20 so that I can get cheaper long distance that way, so
21 that's basically what I've done is taken my business
22 elsewhere and if they expanded this and charged us the
23 $40.00 or whatever, I'm sure we'd use it that way and
24 save money. Our phone bills right now average -- if we
25 were to use Freemont Telcom, they would probably for all
71
CSB REPORTING STEINMAN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 of our long distance like we're using now, it would
2 probably be about $600 a month, so we pay it to the cell
3 companies.
4 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, does that
5 complete your statement?
6 THE WITNESS: Yes.
7 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you for your
8 testimony.
9 (The witness left the stand.)
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: That brings us to the
11 end of our list of witnesses who signed up to testify.
12 Is there anyone here who feels that they have something
13 that hasn't been said and would like to testify?
14 If you'd like to come forward, sir.
15
16 PAT RIDLEY,
17 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
18 sworn, testified as follows:
19
20 THE WITNESS: My name is Pat Ridley. I
21 live at Post Office Box 268, Macks Inn.
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Could you spell your
23 last name for us, sir?
24 THE WITNESS: I will, R-i-d-l-e-y. The zip
25 code up there is 83433. I wasn't going to testify this
72
CSB REPORTING RIDLEY
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 evening because I got here a little bit late and I didn't
2 realize I couldn't ask any questions. I'm sorry, I
3 apologize for that. When we had the principal up here, a
4 thought came to my mind. The smallest bill we've had in
5 the last year that I recall is somewhere around $70.00.
6 It runs from there up to around $400 and every time I get
7 the bill we have quite a confrontation because I want to
8 rip the damn phones off the wall and throw them out and
9 Bauchmans have seen me down at their office quite a few
10 times discussing this and so we've worked it out, but if
11 we don't get this phone bill reduced, I do have two
12 lines, we will be down to one within the next three or
13 four months.
14 The thought came to me -- you know, we try
15 to stay active in the form of what's happening in the
16 community and a lot of times we call the courthouse quite
17 often and we call St. Anthony and Ashton and a lot of
18 times I've said the hell with it, I just really don't
19 want to know for the simple fact I don't want a larger
20 phone bill. It gets ridiculous that I try to cut the
21 phone calls and the next bill I get in is $20.00 higher
22 than the last one and so a lot of times I've not called
23 to get the information that I wanted about what was
24 happening in the community and I think that this has
25 happened to a lot of people.
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1 What I wanted to ask the principal at the
2 time is if sometimes they don't make calls to parents
3 that live where they would have to make a long distance
4 phone call like in Island Park where we are, they would
5 rather write a note or wait until some other time, they
6 think it's not important enough to make that phone call
7 and that's about all I had to say this evening.
8 Thank you.
9 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you,
10 Mr. Ridley.
11 (The witness left the stand.)
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Is there anyone else
13 that feels they would like to testify?
14
15 BRYAN PARKER,
16 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
17 sworn, testified as follows:
18
19 THE WITNESS: My name is Bryan Parker,
20 P-a-r-k-e-r, P.O. Box 222, Teton City, Idaho, 83451. I'm
21 currently the mayor of the City of Teton. I wasn't that
22 well educated on this deal until I come up here and I can
23 see Island Park is not the minority any more, but it
24 looks to me that everybody in Island Park is going to
25 benefit from this without a doubt. Ashton is going to
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1 benefit. You know, Ashton can call St. Anthony, but
2 St. Anthony is not a big industrial place and the
3 business isn't there. I think most people will benefit.
4 The people in Teton, I've talked to a lot
5 of them about it just to get their comments and to try to
6 get educated on it. The people that don't get out and
7 about are highly against it. The people that do business
8 and make the phone calls are highly for it. There
9 doesn't seem to be a middle. It's either for or
10 against.
11 Just listening to the testimonies, I was
12 just concerned, you know, all the businesses, it looks to
13 me like most of them would benefit from it. Some of
14 them, if there is options, now I know there is options in
15 a lot of things and nothing is in stone yet, but if there
16 is options on -- is this right that all phones will be
17 changed to the area calling?
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Sir, were you here at
19 the beginning when Mr. Bauchman went over --
20 THE WITNESS: I'm sorry, I was late.
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: He might furnish you
22 with a copy of his statement so that you can see what is
23 being proposed.
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: It's either all or
25 nothing.
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1 THE WITNESS: Right, all phones or nothing.
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: But if it goes all,
3 there are some choices.
4 THE WITNESS: Okay. I personally was
5 wishy-washy about it because it's not going to change my
6 personal phone bill either way, but if I can call Idaho
7 Falls, Pocatello, I'll call them a lot more if I don't
8 have to pay for it, Island Park, any of them.
9 We do a lot of recreation in Island Park in
10 the wintertime and just drive up there and do it instead
11 of call and see what the weather is, but I guess as the
12 mayor from Teton, most of the people there I think was
13 for it, the people I talked to. The cost increase was a
14 concern, but in some things there is no option. I mean,
15 you've got to cover your costs, so just making a
16 statement.
17 Thanks.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Does that complete
19 your statement, Mayor?
20 THE WITNESS: Yes.
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I think you should
22 talk to Mr. Bauchman after the meeting for a minute.
23 There are a couple of options.
24 (The witness left the stand.)
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Is there anyone
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1 else? Yes, sir.
2
3 KEITH WALKER,
4 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
5 sworn, testified as follows:
6
7 THE WITNESS: I'm used to giving those, not
8 taking them, how thoughtless of me. My name is Keith
9 Walker and my address is 151 West 1st North, St. Anthony,
10 Idaho. The court would not take, as a Magistrate judge I
11 will not take, an official position, but I think it's
12 important to maybe point out some problems we do have.
13 If we have a jury trial in Freemont County, our jurors
14 from the Island Park area, they need to call in to see if
15 the trial is still proceeding and that costs them just to
16 call in to see if they can serve and then we pay them the
17 sum of $8.00 a day to do that if they serve, and if they
18 need to call home to make arrangements, those are long
19 distance calls and so I do think it is a burden upon
20 those in the north end of the county to serve on a jury
21 and then have those added expenses.
22 We also have a lot of conference calls. I
23 sit in Bonneville County one day a week. My staff needs
24 to call me every Thursday in Bonneville County. If it's
25 a Bonneville County case that I'm assigned to, the
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1 lawyers from Bonneville County will call in or I will
2 call them. Some of those are extensive conference calls
3 with two or three attorneys and each is a long distance
4 call and attorneys are long-winded, so it takes some
5 time.
6 I purposely haven't looked at the court's
7 phone bill. It would probably be better that I not know
8 how high it is, but I'm sure we have a substantial
9 expense to the taxpayers and I feel this would reduce the
10 cost to the taxpayers as far as the court lines are
11 concerned. I cannot speak for the other county offices.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, does that
13 complete your statement, sir?
14 THE WITNESS: Yes.
15 COMMISSIONER SMITH: This is your chance to
16 ask questions of the Judge.
17 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you for
18 your statement.
19 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
20 (The witness left the stand.)
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Would you like to
22 come forward?
23
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1 DAVE JACOBSON,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Dave Jacobson,
6 J-a-c-o-b-s-o-n, and my Post Office Box is 548, Ashton,
7 and I realize it's getting late, but I just wanted to
8 bring forth a couple of quick things that have come to
9 mind over the course of this evening. I am all in favor
10 of the extended area. For personal reasons, my own phone
11 bill will go down, I'm sure, but from my business
12 standpoint, it's going to be quite expensive.
13 We've had six lines into the store. We
14 have just changed down to five because of the expense, we
15 combined the two together that we could and I do think
16 that the business rate should be examined, some sort of a
17 break for the more calls, but just one point that I did
18 want to bring up, a couple of years ago we looked at the
19 possibility of putting in an ATM machine, but it had to
20 have a dedicated line and because of the cost and we had
21 our doubts that it would get that much usage in the off
22 season, we chose not to do that.
23 Also, the Game and Fish came to me when one
24 of the local businesses let their licensing machine go as
25 far as the service they had, the Game and Fish contacted
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 me, said they were interested in us putting it in our
2 store. Once again, because I had to have a dedicated
3 line and the expense involved there, I chose not to do
4 that and I think if the rate stays this high with
5 businesses that other businesses as there is growth and
6 they need to add lines, they may take a look at that
7 option also of passing on a service that could be
8 generated for the area as the ATM was for us.
9 When we looked at that, there was not an
10 ATM machine in town at all. We would have had the first
11 one and this was about two-and-a-half years ago. There
12 are, I believe, three in Ashton now, but the service
13 would have been nice for the community, but because of
14 the cost of the business line, we chose not to do it and
15 I think if the rates are going to go up again, especially
16 for each line and -- and it is the world of choice and
17 options. You go to the bank to get a loan and they give
18 you about 50 different options and I think that for
19 business lines there ought to be some sort of an option
20 and that's basically all I have to say.
21 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you, sir,
22 appreciate you coming forward.
23 (The witness left the stand.)
24 COMMISSIONER NELSON: If there's no one
25 else -- yes, sir, would you like to testify?
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1 TED STURM,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: I'm Ted Sturm, S-t-u-r-m. I
6 live at 4091 East 1200 North, Ashton. I have more of a
7 question than a comment. I have not heard anyone mention
8 the emergency service side of this situation. I pay the
9 bills on the local fire department. We do not see any
10 reduction for the lines that have to be there, so they're
11 standing there all the time being not used and the
12 taxpayers basically having to pay for these, your
13 dollars, but if it goes up, it's just that much less
14 money I have to buy equipment for the community.
15 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Are you talking about
16 911 lines, sir?
17 THE WITNESS: I am not sure how I'm
18 affected by 911 lines. That goes into the sheriff's
19 office. We have two private lines into the fire house
20 that I think are running $72.00 and then there's another
21 side of it that I'm not sure how it would affect, I think
22 the phone company refers to it as non-powered lines.
23 Anyway, it's for the siren, the communications side of
24 it, I don't know how any of this would affect that.
25 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I think you're beyond
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1 my expertise. Maybe you could talk to Mr. Bauchman about
2 your individual problem there after the hearing or soon
3 and get a better answer than you'll ever get from me.
4 THE WITNESS: I just wanted the Commission
5 to know that there is the emergency side of all of this.
6 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I appreciate that.
7 Thank you.
8 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
9 (The witness left the stand.)
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: All right, one more.
11
12 BOB COMSTOCK,
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
14 sworn, testified as follows:
15
16 THE WITNESS: Bob Comstock, P.O. Box 920,
17 Ashton, C-o-m-s-t-o-c-k. One of the concerns I have is
18 that everybody is for it, but the people who are for it
19 are usually going to save money because of it, which
20 means in my mind that we have a whole bunch of people
21 that are not here that are going to pay more and maybe
22 they don't care, but I know the people I've talked to in
23 my store are concerned about it and there's going to be a
24 lot of people who probably can't afford it that are going
25 to be paying more anyway.
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CSB REPORTING COMSTOCK
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 In my particular case, we have four lines.
2 We will probably -- we're going to pay a little bit more,
3 but it's not a lot. I think I came up with $13.00 a
4 month more, but what I would like to see and I think it's
5 absolutely correct that Island Park and the rest of the
6 community should be connected, but I understand that it
7 would be possible to connect just Freemont County
8 together for maybe $2.00 a month more. Instead, we're
9 going to be paying $16.00 a month more.
10 It seems like it would be nice to be able
11 to either have Freemont County for, let's say, $2.00 a
12 month more or if you want to expand that to all of
13 eastern Idaho, fine, another $16.00 a month. Maybe if
14 you want to expand that for all of Idaho, an additional
15 whatever dollars a month. I don't like the idea that we
16 just all get the same thing and I would like, like in my
17 case, to add more lines, but when it goes up to $50.00 a
18 line, it makes it prohibitive.
19 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you,
20 sir.
21 (The witness left the stand.)
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, if there's no
23 one else, why, that brings us to the end of tonight's
24 hearing. I certainly would like to thank all of you for
25 your patience in sticking with us through this hearing.
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CSB REPORTING COMSTOCK
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 Is there anything we need to do before we
2 adjourn this hearing? If not, why, thank you for your
3 attention and this hearing would then be adjourned.
4 Thank you.
5 (The Hearing adjourned at 9:00 p.m.)
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CSB REPORTING COLLOQUY
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1 AUTHENTICATION
2
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4 This is to certify that the foregoing
5 proceedings held in the matter of the petition of
6 customers of the Fremont Telcom Company requesting
7 extended area service (EAS) to the U S WEST eastern Idaho
8 calling region, commencing at 6:30 p.m., on Tuesday,
9 June 2, 1998, at the Ashton Community Center Gymnasium,
10 925 Main Street, Ashton, Idaho, is a true and correct
11 transcript of said proceedings and the original thereof
12 for the file of the Commission.
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CONSTANCE S. BUCY
17 Certified Shorthand Reporter #187
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CSB REPORTING AUTHENTICATION
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