PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative is raising money from customers for charity, but some customers aren’t happy about one detail.

The Plymouth-based co-op has told its members, who are its customers, that unless they opt out, their monthly bills will be rounded up to the next dollar, with the extra pennies going to the co-op’s new foundation.

“You’re not given the option of opting in, you’re only given the option of opting out,” Tom Bartlett of Moultonborough told The Citizen of Laconia. “They’re grabbing your money and you have to ask for it back.”

Bartlett suspects many people won’t notice the rounding, which began last month.

“My bookkeeper picked it up because the bill came out to a whole dollar, which is unusual. They rounded up my bill by about 70 cents,” he said.

Co-op spokesman Seth Wheeler said managers knew the “opt out” approach might not sit well with some members, but said the expected benefits of the program trumped that concern.

“For a long time there has been a desire among management and the board of directors that we should be more of a presence and help support the organizations that we think are necessary for our success and that of our communities,” Wheeler said.

Energy cooperatives like the co-op are guided by seven principles, Wheeler said, one of which is concern for community.

“We felt the creation of a foundation would allow us, using small contributions every month from members who want to be in the program, to achieve that goal,” he said.

For several years, the co-op has used the “opt-in” approach with two other charitable efforts, Project Care, which helps people who can’t pay their electric bills, and a Dollars for Scholars scholarship program.

As of the middle of last week, fewer than 5 percent of members had opted out of the new program, Wheeler said. He said the co-op publicized its plans to start the foundation for at least a year and told customers how to opt out, but he acknowledged that some appear to have been caught by surprise anyway.

—

On the Net:

www.nhec.com

—

Information from: Citizen, http://www.fosters.com/citizen

AP-ES-02-12-06 1446EST