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With $674 In The Bank, Century’s Gas Dept. Scrambles To Pay $33.6K In Past Due Bills
October 26, 2018
With just $674 in the bank, the Century Gas Department was scrambling for a way to pay $33,602 in mostly past due bills.
At an emergency town council meeting Thursday afternoon, the council voted to zero out a $11,030 reserve account and transfer $25,000 from a special revenue account in order to make payments that include health insurance premiums for workers and the actual natural gas sold to consumers.
The past due bills include $7,816 from BP Energy for natural gas, $1,200 to City Services and $912 to Florida Gas Utility due about 45 days ago. Another $10,638 is also 15 days past due to those companies. A $1,250 payment to the town’s financial auditor, Warren Averett, is 46 days past due, and $504 to Consolidated Pipe & Supply is at 50 days. Health insurance premiums of $2,567 to United Healthcare for gas department employees is 28 days past due.
Other “emergency” bills are less than a week past due – $236 to Verizon Wireless, $615 to Purchase Power, $30 to Louverne Starkie. One bill for $85.44 to Century Auto Parts was not past due as of Thursday; it has a Saturday due date.
Century Mayor Henry Hawkins said the emergency meeting was called for Thursday afternoon because “our bills would have been late”, and the town did not know if any service might be suspended before the next regular council meeting in two weeks.
“I called an emergency meeting; we got to get these checks out,” the mayor said. When asked if the town has every paid bills late before, he said, “we are breaking that habit”.
“We have lost our health insurance before. We ain’t going to do that again,” Hawkins said.
Council member Ann Brooks was out of town and did not attend Thursday’s meeting, and Louis Gomez was absent due to an appointment.
NorthEscambia.com will look at some of the other issues faced by the Century Gas Department in future stories.
Pictured: Accountant Robert Hudson (left) explains the Century Gas Department financial situation to town council members Sandra McMurray-Jackson, Ben Boutwell and Gary Riley Thursday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
32 Responses to “With $674 In The Bank, Century’s Gas Dept. Scrambles To Pay $33.6K In Past Due Bills”
If it walks like a duck….Someone needs to be held responsible for this mess…If I lived there I would be going total electric and skip the gas…
I’ve worked with/for city government. There is no way the Mayor or the Council President don’t know what’s going on. Good grief gossip spreads like wildfire ‘round here, secrets don’t keep for long! If I were a Century resident I wouldn’t count on gas for heating this winter. If I were a gas dept. employee I’d be looking for a job. Thankful I am neither.
@Willis
I was just referring to that they’ve had this problem with the gas department before this administration and the cycle of mismanagement of the department has not been broken. It is up to this administration to break it and not pass it on to the next.
Yes it’s obvious that the bill is 45 days old not two years and just by this you can tell that they’ve been paying the bills late for a long time. At some point you won’t have money to move around to the gas department.
Let’s see what the new meters would do the fix some of the problems.
Reminds me of the song ‘How Long Can This Keep Going On’.
This whole thing is a planned performance lo implement necessary changes how Century is run without facing opposition. The gas drama alone is enough evidence of that – nobody could possibly be that stupid not to realize they are “missing ”’ half of their inventory on a monthly basis.
@ rc and chelleepea
Negative ghost riders……
45 days past due not 2 years.
Well within this administration’s time of downward spiral.
Running out of money buy buying new trucks? With this type of management style, not a surprise that no businesses would ever consider locating to Century. It’s beyond being a laughingstock and now just an embarrassment.
We dont have the money to pay the town bills but our Mayor thought it was a good idea to buy new trucks. On top of hiring another city hall worker, that shouldn’t have been needed! Flomaton & Jay run off of half the amount of city hall workers! Just curious how that these bills are so far past due & didnt get the mayor’s attention when he was shopping. But all of a sudden that Ann is out of town they’ve got his attention now?
Also the county granted the franchise so the town could sell the gas department..to negotiate with Pensacola Energy.
Why did you not sell it and cut the losses, was it because employees want to still keep the job as long as possible.
This is starting to become a case of ethics, misusing public position for private gain. It is not going un noticed..
I don’t think any one really want to press that but..
It’s obvious –whether the people in those positions want to pas the buck around or not..
Hudson..are you still wanting to draw a paycheck?
Where is the honor is doing that?
You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all the time.
Times up.
You know the state audit is done annually and it’s only now a matter of time.
When will these finally see the handwriting on the wall and start the ball rolling to unincorporate.
Those watching know the ones who have the authority still benefit from the insurance, the employment, the little bit of pay and some the prestige of title and other reasons.
The consultants and hanger on probably set u the CRA to get paid knowing the ship was sinking and most likely the CRA would not continue.
For instance what happened to filing the new LDC that the city paid someone to complete. Did they , Did they file it?
No blaming
Handwriting on the wall. You need to start seeking solutions and truth about simple thing like running water and the sewer.
what are the options..
Praying for freezing weather maybe?
If they are zeroing savings accounts to pay bills that range from 45 days past due to 28 days past due, how are they going to pay the ones that are currently due.
As in, the health insurance is 28 days past due and they are using savings to pay it. Doesn’t that mean that another month is already due?????
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise !!!
Goat rodeo…..cracking me up
with $674.00 in the bank, how will gas payroll be paid?
Even a class of 1st graders would have paid some amount toward these bills! Where did Century obtain a group of idiots who don’t pay their bills? Health insurance is at the top of their list? Why?
@rc…..right on!
Everything is not this administration’s fault but it is on them to fix the cycle of mismanagement. Let’s not pass this on to the next 4 years.
where is the $24.5K in county funds when you need it.
if it happens on your watch you get the blame or credit
It seems that the town was in trouble before the new Mayor took office so you can’t blame him for all of the problems that were inherited. He’s said and done some things that weren’t right but the fact is he walked into a hornet’s nest of problems and not coping well-although it all appears to be overwhelming. Old gas lines that leak isn’t his fault as well as maintenance that was neglected to the point of failure. A serious audit needs to be done and then a plan needs to be put in play after they know where they’re at. Meetings with the residents and Mayor’s office need to be held and ideas and options discussed. All the finger pointing needs to stop and progress made.People on both sides want to bring race into it,but let’s face it folks-Broke is Broke- it has no color. work together people-the survival of Century depends on it.
Vicky,
Nobody will bring a business into Century.
Hence, no jobs for the people.
This story says it all.
It seems Century is always in financial trouble, and has been consistently fiscally irresponsible. They need to either put people in charge who know how to manage money, or simply disband and join with Cantonment or another town for services…
So….Business as usual in Century, got it.
they need to stop personal loans and take that money to pay the town’s bill’s also they need to get some things in here to bring in money and job’s for the people and maybe our budget would go up
What a goat rodeo.
Someone needs to be fired. How can a department head not know the bills are late and not tell the Mayor. Every department should report their financial results at least monthly. Eben a dummy like me write his bills balance due, dates, and paid in a tablet every wonweeks..Report or resign. You to Mr. Hawkins
YIKES, This is just Nuts. How dare this bunch be so far in arrears?
Sounds to me they should be brought to the public square and made to explain themselves and tell the employees why they are being so unresponsible with their Health Insurance.
Good Grief, this is terrible.
It’s time to call in those outstanding personal loans to council members! LOL, but this is no laughing matter; Century is in serious financial trouble, which I’m sure is exacerbated as it continues to buy new stuff and hire additional employees the town can’t afford.
When will this mess end?
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.
We can’t pay our bills, but we are styling in our brand new trucks. Sounds pretty ghetto doesn’t it?
This is how a twon dies. Century is on life support and a trauma surgeon cannot save it.