17 SEP 07: LEAVE THE LIGHT BILL TO US
Sunday was the coolest morning in months in Columbus, as the low temperature was 58 degrees F. How many homes switched from running central air conditioning to central heat during the night?
BLOG EXCLUSIVE: A lot of people are facing big September electric bills, after the August heat wave. But your blog has discovered one high-profile Columbus business is at least 30 days behind in its payments - and when it comes to Georgia Power, you know how important it is to "be current."
We've obtained pieces of the September electric bill for the Greyhound bus station downtown. The total tab comes to $3,100.54 - and more than half of that is for "previous service." This apparently means your bus ride out of town today will help pay for people who used the vending machine in July.
The receipt of Greyhound's September electric bill shows about $1,580 of it was paid last week. This covers the "previous service," as well as some sort of "LPC" charge. Since I pay my bill on time, I'm guessing those initials stand for "late payment charge" - and not for someone who took the bus from the Louisiana Power Company.
Greyhound elected to leave more than $1,520 of its September electric bill unpaid. The bill includes one line which puzzles me - $102.30 for lighting. Why isn't that included with "electric service?" Are homeless people pumping bicycles in the basement, to keep the fluorescent lights on?
Until this bill passed our way, I'd never really thought about how much the downtown bus station paid for electricity. My big question was where Greyhound hid the diesel fuel pumps - and if there aren't any at the bus station, who tells the their drivers the cheapest places to fill up.
If the Greyhound bus station spends about $1,400 a month on its electric bill, we can guess how much other Columbus locations spend. I would imagine the bill is at least twice as high at the airport - even though Greyhound probably handles a lot more passengers per week, and without running those fancy X-ray machines.
So, you may be asking, how did this blog wind up with the downtown bus station's electric bill? Don't worry, you U.S. Postal Service employees - I'm not going to bash you twice in seven days....
Believe it or not, someone left the Greyhound bus station's bill out in the open for anyone to pick up. And sure enough, someone DID pick it up at the Georgia Power grounds up Veterans Parkway. Apparently a $1,520 unpaid electric bill is no big deal -- nor is Greyhound's account number with the electric company.
What sort of lessons can we learn from this? The biggest lesson which comes to mind for me is that Greyhound might want to increase its electric bill a bit more - to buy a top-quality paper shredder.
In the interest of full disclosure, I suppose I should tell you how big my electric bill was this month. It's huge for me -- at about 48 dollars. Maybe I should have heated frozen dinners in the oven, instead of the microwave.
Now let's power down, with some leftover news notes from the weekend:
+ The Courier reported a "letter of complaint" has been sent to the Muscogee County Sheriff, about the July drug bust at the Buena Vista Road McDonald's. The letter apparently expressed concern that a deputy fired shots near a children's playground. The report left out one key detail - is the complainant a suspect?
+ The 44th annual Shrine Circus had its closing performances at the Civic Center. When I jogged by about 5:20 p.m., a long line stretched into the parking lot -- and it didn't smell like the building was evacuated due to loose animals.
+ The Plaza Sol flea market on North Lumpkin Road held a party to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. If you feel threatened by this news, consider this: Another group marked Jamaican Independence Day last month in a Columbus city park - and there's still no radio station playing 24-hour reggae music.
+ Alabama jumped into the Associated Press college football poll, at #16. It's the Tide's first ranking since the.... huh?!?! Since the end of 2005?! You mean Alabama had ANOTHER good football team a couple of years ago? Hardly anyone in Tuscaloosa seems to remember that....
+ Jacksonville jolted Atlanta in pro football 13-7, holding the Falcons to 248 total yards. When Tiger Woods can go farther with one drive in Atlanta than the Falcons can in multiple drives in Jacksonville, it's not a good sign.
+ That very same Tiger Woods won The Tour Championship in Atlanta, as well as the "FedEx Cup." Put the twin titles together, and Woods won $11,260,000 in one day. Yeah, but can he win the Mega Millions jackpot Tuesday night?
+ Instant Message to the Columbus Catfish: What gives? You won a championship four days ago. At least you could hang a sign outside Golden Park saying so - or are you waiting for the city to organize a victory parade first?
COMING SOON: The woman who took my customer discount card, and threw it in a trash can....
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