News and Notes

MEA to reduce electric rates

PALMER — If you’re not paying attention you might miss it, but electricity rates are going down at the start of next year. According to a press release from the Matanuska Electric Association, the cooperative’s board of directors approved a 0.53 percent decrease in base rates starting in the first week of January.

Calculated for the average home, which consumes just under 800 kilowatt hours of electricity each month, that pencils out to a $0.43 decrease in monthly electricity costs.

Palmer man jailed for possession

of stolen pickup

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers say efforts to disguise a pickup stolen from a used car lot were no match for the drug team’s investigative skills.

According to at trooper press statement, the pickup in question was taken in early January from a lot in Eagle River. Troopers say they believed it wound up in the possession of Byron C. Staten, 24, of Palmer, but that the vehicle had been altered so as to obscure its origin.

Troopers say they seized the pickup on Nov. 4. By Tuesday, they had a search warrant to look for identifying marks to prove the pickup was the one that was stolen.

Indeed, troopers report, it was the stolen pickup.

Troopers arrested Staten and charged him with theft by receiving, criminal mischief and removal of identification marks. His bail was set at $20,000. Jail records Friday afternoon showed he was still incarcerated at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

Troopers seek vehicle

used in burglary

WASILLA — Alaska State Troopers are seeking information about a car that might have been involved in a burglary late last month.

According to a press release Mat-Su Crime Stoppers issued this week, a home on Serrano Drive was burglarized sometime between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Oct. 28. Stolen were a 52-inch Samsung flat-screen TV, a Samsung Blue-ray player, a 32-inch Insignia TV with built-in Blue-ray player and an HP Pavilion all-in-one computer and an HP laptop, two Nintendo DS game systems, a Bose sound system and 3-D glasses.

The vehicle in question is a black foreign-made sedan with silver trim around its deeply tinted windows and a newer-style license plate.

Anyone with information can call Troopers at 745-2131. To remain anonymous, callers can contact Mat-Su Crime Stoppers at 745-3333. Tips can also be submitted online at matsu-crimestoppers.org or via text message to CRIMES (274637) with the keyword MATSU followed by the tip.