I live on Iffley Street, a one-block-long street running in between Belfort and Verrill streets in the Riverton area. Since moving in three years ago, we wondered why Unitil, the public utility natural gas provider for Portland, did not finish coming down Belfort Street, round the corner on Iffley and continue up Verrill Street.
According to Unitil, we must contact the seven to eight other unserved neighbors, and we must all pony up $2,000 apiece to have Unitil come in and graciously deign to plug us into the city natural gas network. I don’t know about you, but nobody in our neighborhood has $2,000 sitting around to donate to Unitil so they can actually fulfill their contract to be a public utility.
Despite contacting my city councilor and the mayor, we were told there are some fascinating byzantine reasons why Until feels it is under no obligation to serve our Portland neighborhood completely. Unitil is now replacing the lines (as far as they go) down both Belfort and Verrill streets. Our query was once again met with the requirement for raising money from households. There is no “public” to Unitil’s service if people in Portland can’t get natural gas.
Arian Heald
Portland
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