As you probably saw when you received your recent gas bill, Peoples TWP gas company has requested from the Pennsylvania Public Utility commission a rate increase of 28 percent for residential customers and 5.3 percent for commercial customers.

As a result of this request, a public hearing has been scheduled by the PUC for 6 p.m. July 23 in the Butler County Government Building, located behind the courthouse on West Diamond Street.

An ad about this meeting appeared in the July 16 edition of the Butler Eagle, on page 5 in the lower right corner.

If you don’t want to see this kind of increase in your gas bill, I urge you to attend this meeting and voice your concerns. If the PUC doesn’t receive very many complaints, it will probably grant this rate increase of 28 percent.

I wrote a letter to the Butler Eagle in June about my concerns with this rate request.

Unfortunately, since I will be out of state at the time, I will not be able to attend this important hearing, which might have a substantial effect on all our pocketbooks in the near future.