HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — Nearly 2,700 residential properties could be left paying higher utility rates after trustees learned they were listed as removed on the county’s website because of a third-party email.

Trustee Eric Lamb said Friday that he’s fielded 30 phone calls throughout the week from older residents asking him what to do with their gas aggregate and how to shop for a better rate, initially assuming it was because of his background in energy.

Lamb said Trustee Monica Baker called him Thursday, informing him that the township opted out of the county-wide gas aggregate with Palmer Energy approved earlier this year.

However, Lamb said trustees never voted on it and only expressed plans to seek other options after he suggested seeking their own aggregate to lower rates for residents.

“I called Shara (Taylor) at the county commissioner’s office — she went and looked at the file and pretty much dug into it and said, ‘Yeah, I have an email here from (Buckeye Energy Brokers president) Tom Bellish,” Lamb said.

The email, sent to Taylor Jan. 6, listed Hubbard as one of the five townships signing or pursuing a natural gas program with his company, asking the county not to contract for natural gas for those communities.

While Lamb had an 18-minute conversation with Bellish before being sworn in as trustee, Trustee Jason Tedrow said they never discussed alternative options until Bellish’s presentation at a Jan. 13 regular meeting, adding that they weren’t even pursuing anything, but only gathering information and exploring options.

Tedrow said he spoke with the county prosecutor’s office about the matter Friday morning, which told him there was one community that backed out of the county-wide aggregate earlier on, but later sent a letter expressing they wanted to rejoin it.

Tedrow said Palmer Energy was able to get that community back in at their original rate, according to the county prosecutor’s office, but there was no certainty that it could happen again for a different community.

“At that time, they did learn, since they had already kind of gone through this, that Palmer Energy did imply that if this happens, there’s no guarantee it’s gonna come back in at the right rate,” Tedrow said. “We could end up with the current market rate for the aggregate at that point.”

Tedrow said the township’s removal could cost its taxpayers.

He said the township has between 2,600 and 2,700 residential properties that could face variable rates, which could drive up their energy and utility costs over the next three years — the county-wide aggregate period.

“Yes, maybe Buckeye Energy had some wishful thinking in sending out their e-mail stating that we were pursuing something with them when we were not,” Tedrow said. “At the end of the day, the county was the one that made the decision to remove us from the aggregate with no official communication, no official documentation from us.”

“No one reached out just to verify, and had this not been caught at this point, it may have been a bigger problem — and it still may be a problem.”

Tedrow said he learned the prosecutor’s office received letters from other communities opting out, but they never received one from the township, yet still opted them out.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez, who noted the township’s opt-out status to officials at a recent workshop, confirmed that Taylor received an email from Buckeye Energy stating the township was going to contract through them.

Hernandez said he was forwarded an email from Bellish Friday informing Taylor that Tedrow notified him that they were not pursuing an agreement with his group, and Hubbard Township residents will pay Enbridge’s April MCO rate of $3.795/mcf.

Bellish requested that Taylor have the county’s broker or supplier coordinate gas flow with the township, if trustees wanted it, and apologized for any inconvenience.

Hernandez provided correspondence with Lamb earlier this year stating that the township was pursuing different options.

“During that period of time — and when Bellish visited them — they should have, at that point, made those decisions and said ‘Listen, we’re not going to do this,” Hernandez said. “And contacted the commissioner’s office and said, ‘Listen, we’re still wanting to be part of this program.”

Hernandez said Taylor is speaking with Palmer Energy to see if Hubbard Township can be included in its program.

Commissioner Tony Bernard said he spoke with Tedrow Thursday night, expressing his understanding that Commissioner Denny Malloy and Hernandez spoke with Baker and Lamb.

“I spoke with our prosecutor’s office today, and he’s looking into it; there’s a lot of conversation, there’s a lot of information out there, and we tried to get hold of Palmer today to see exactly where everything is,” Bernard said. “With it being Good Friday, we’re not going to get an answer back now, so we’re probably going to have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.”

“If Hubbard Township wants to be in the county’s aggregation program, then they should be allowed. Now, how we got to this point, I’m not going to comment on that now until we get all the information and see what all the facts are.”