Electrical customers will vote on transferring Yakama Indian Reservation service

Electrical customers in rural Benton County will be asked if they want to transfer over service on the Yakama Indian Reservation to a public company run by the reservation.

Troy Berglund with Benton Rural Electric Association says the company will receive $24 million in the sale which would prevent future rate hikes for customers, but they will lose about 1,200 reservation customers.

"We have previsions in there to make sure the transition would be smooth, that reliability wouldn't be interrupted, that Benton REA is fairly compensated, a number of previsions in there to look out for the long term best interested of both the members that would be transferred, as well as, the members that would remain," says Berglund.

Ballots will be mailed out in September. A series of meetings will also be held for customers with questions and a full list will be available on the Benton REA website.