The "To Keep Up" Wiki

July 8, 2022 Hello neighbors,

You may recall, we met you/family on neighborhood streets and chatted recently, and you gave us your name/contact information for all of us in the group to communicate and exchange information.

My husband, Steve, and I had a jaw-dropping moment, when we saw the home fuel oil bill from our current supplier after our recent fill-up. Because of this and the rising prices, we started doing some research on oil suppliers who would deliver to Lexington residents. We found at least 11. I have been calling each one to get the pricing and services information and I'm collecting data into a chart for ourselves and to share.

During this process, 4-5 of the oil providers agreed to the possibility of having a group rate. This could be a big win. So we are trying to pull together enough interested neighbors to make it worthwhile for an oil provider to give us a better price on oil delivery and boiler service than we might get on our own.

Here is our plan and our progress to the plan:

• We have investigated oil providers and collected data.
• We have set up a simple web page on our own domain, holding a summary of our findings.
• We are considering the setup of a group email list for status updates and a means for inter-neighbor communication.
  • This is a mail list we manage, it's for neighbors only. We won't be giving access to oil providers or advertisers, so there won't be any junk mail
• At some point fairly soon, we expect to suggest one, maybe two, oil providers for the group to see and consider.
• Hopefully we'll arrive at one “winner”,
• For those of you who are willing, we will submit your name, address, and contact information to this provider so they can contact you.
• If we get enough people switching their service to the “winner” we will all benefit with the lower prices a group rate will provide.

Once the neighbor group list is submitted to the chosen company, you would establish your own business relationship with the company. We would be only maintaining the group email list and the information web page.

Disclaimers.

• Our part in this: We are only collecting information that we'll provide to you, along with a recommendation. We plan to switch to the “winning” oil provider.
• Relationship: If you decide to switch to this “winning” company, this is your own decision and your relationship with this oil company is strictly between you and them.
• Cost: None: There is no cost to you or any of the neighbors for the research we are doing and the information we are providing.
• Benefit: We, and hopefully you, will switch to the “winning” oil provider, and benefit from the lower group rate and/or service.

So far, we have about 12 households (including yours) on our street and neighboring streets who are interested (Ross, Oxbow, Constitution, Revolutionary, and Paul Revere). We still have more neighbors to discuss this with, so we are mid-way through in the process. Our time frame is aiming in time to affect deliveries later this summer/fall or sooner.

Please ask your neighbors if they are interested in this concept, please give them our name/contact information and forward this email to them. Please let us know if you know another provider who could offer a better program to the group, we will include in our information table. The more the better, it gives us more negotiation power for the group!

I will provide the link when I call around again with the latest info on Tuesday; I just learned that oil prices change every day. The information I got was 2 weeks old.

We are looking forward to finding a good price/service oil provider for us and others!

Thank you for your interest, and it was nice chatting with you! Evie (781-258-7743) and Steve (781-258-7741) 9 Ross Road both@toku.us