Headquarters of The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Emily Opilo has quickly become a must-read reporter at the Allentown Morning Call.  This evening, her piece about the Public Utilities Commission and the proposed Allentown water system lease was posted here. The long and the short of it is that as things stand now, PUC’s lawyers are of the opinion that the Commission would have no jurisdiction over regulation of rate increases should Allentown lease our water to the private sector.  City Council President Julio Guridy says this will give the City more direct control over monitoring rates, and that any rate hike would have to be approved by Council.

“It will give us an opportunity to keep better control,” Guridy said.

You’ll recall that last spring, City Council voted in favor of the DTE deal, which outsources the City’s solid waste management.

So we’ll see.