Natural gas service to hit northern Monroe County in 2020

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- A ribbon cutting ceremony hosted by Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley and Atmos Energy is celebrating the start of what they call a star.

And it could fuel potential growth in Monroe County. A $1 million project is bringing new power to rural Mississippi and it could help families with their cost of living.

More residents in Monroe County will soon have the option to use natural gas.

Atmos Energy is expanding service into the Cason community.

The move is something Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has been pushing for almost since he took office.

“One of my priorities as Commissioner is to make sure folks that live in a rural areas have the same service to things like natural gas, as someone living in downtown Jackson. The service project which is going to be around $1 million dollars, and it will help reduce the cost of living,” said Commissioner Presley.

During the first phase of the service project, over 170 homes can expect to have access to natural gas.

The Country Squire Restaurant and a church are the first two businesses to tap into the new resource.

Mississippi has over 10,000 miles of natural gas pipelines. Commissioner Presley would like to see more of those reaching smaller communities like Cason.

“This incidentally is the only program of its kind in the United States of America we are very proud of this and proud to see results to deliver results for the folks living in rural Monroe County. I want to see this happen for the other 81 counties,” said Commissioner Presley.

Atmos Energy Operations Manager Michelle Whittle says residents have been waiting on this for a long time.

“This enables us to have additional customers because the customers want natural gas in a will indeed lower their utilities bills, it’s just gonna fuel the fire to get more customers for Atmos Energy,” said Whittle.

Presley says construction has begun and they are aiming to have the project finished by fall of 2020.

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