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Century Gas Superintendent Quits; Pensacola Extends Helping Hand To Century
September 12, 2019
Century’s gas superintendent abruptly quit this week, and City of Pensacola is extending a helping hand to their neighbors to the north.
Kellett Resigns
Wally Kellett notified the town on Tuesday that Thursday would be his last day, according to interim Century City Manager Buz Eddy. He said Kellett has accepted another job in Sunrise, Fla.
The Century Town Council has asked “Where’s Wally?” several times this year after Kellett was a no-show for council meetings despite being instructed to attend.
The council requested Kellett keep them updated on the progress of new meter installations, back billing issues with the prison and other issues concerning the department. But with few updates, the town’s governing body has been in the dark on their natural gas department.
“Our gas superintendent won’t come to these meetings. We need this vital information,” council President Ann Brooks said at a July meeting.
Kellett worked as gas superintendent from June 2015 to May 2016 before leaving for another job. He returned to Century’s payroll in July 2018.
City of Pensacola Helping Hand
The City of Pensacola is offering to help Century with gas department and financial issues. The initial offer was made prior to Kellett announcing his departure.
“I think it’s critically important for local governments throughout our region to work together as a team, so I am committed to assisting the Town of Century in creating a strategic plan that will help resolve some of their existing issues,” Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said. “While the City of Pensacola cannot commit to solving these problems, we want to help Century assess their needs and create a plan to address them in a way that benefits their residents and moves the town forward.”
Pensacola Energy has not committed any staff to install meters in Century, but will be assessing the scope of work this week to make a recommendation to the Town of Century. Pensacola staff is helping Century assess what their next steps should be and prepare a strategic plan, specifically related to the town’s gas service and financial issues.
Pictured top: Century Gas Department Superintendent Wally Kellett addresses to the Century Town Council earlier this summer. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
23 Responses to “Century Gas Superintendent Quits; Pensacola Extends Helping Hand To Century”
Mrs Hudson, the lady in the background should have been elected. Vote for the best most qualified candidates. We could use a smarter vote on the council. It is good to see the changes. It made no sense for the Mayor to publicly ignore the grand jury findings. Glad this came to a head.
Pensacola Energy can have the gas department, who would hold on to a mismanaged department.
@Preston Hardy
I’m disappointed NO MORE FREE GAS,for any one
No one seems disappointed by Wally Kellett’s resignation.
Give it to PE. More good news. Thanks Buz, the grand jury, the auditors and others. This had drug on too long. When the county negotiated the franchise the town should have let it go then.
Even the audit had some promising paragraphs this time.
Maybe the new Slogan can be Century–Resurrected from the Dead.
It appears the island is getting smaller. Have all the problem solvers left this area. Whew!
Hire someone new for Wally’s job? Century can’t pay their bills so how are they going to pay salaries?? It would be a fool to apply for any position in Century’s Departments of Gas, Water or City Council.
Give Century back to Flomaton Alabama. Pensacola doesn’t need their problems. I have an issue paying out any tax money to help out a load of people that have no clue how to operate a business. For years, money in Century can not be accounted for.
If you want free utilities as in Gas, then move to Century. Make sure your gas meter is outdated and doesn’t work. It’s free and not reported to the proper personnel.
Escambia County Board of Commissioners and City of Pensacola can offer ways to improve Century and assess what needs to be done. But, it must stop there. Century created difficult problems and now they must endure the consequences.
If Energy Services of Pensacola wants to install gas meters, then do it free. Otherwise, you won’t get paid. Help they neighbor and work as a team !
Why was this person even hired back. And the people responsible for letting him get by this long should be fired too.
After failure to appear at meetings, and dereliction of duties, not to mention the constant bleeding of red ink, this is good riddance to a bad employee.
Luckily I don’t live in Century and don’t know any of the “characters” in this soap opera. It’s easy to find and blame a scapegoat – where was the oversight? If he was that bad of an employee, why was he not let go? Was he told to provide free gas to certain people and to keep his mouth shut? The whole truth will never come out – Century reminds me of Washington D.C. – an inaccessible swamp
Wally Kellett sure does change jobs alot.
Not doing his job in century what makes Sunrise FL think he could possibly do them any good, something’s fishy there
STILL WANT TO SEE YOU WAS GETTING FREE GAS
Another step forward for Century . ….. sometimes it hurts but you must get rid of the dead weights……hopefully they will hire with more prudence this go around….like not put an entry-level person in a senior level job and expect them to jump the learning curve
Sunrise can change its name to Sundown. This guy is a donuthing.
Get outta there!!!! You’ll be better off
You know I was county supervisor in ny for 20 years and I don’t know how it happens here but nothing was done without board approval. For this to happen is mine blowing where was everyone while this was happening no accountability
3 million dollars missing in general fund 1.5 million in gas fund missing 25 different checking accounts what is happening about that this was state audit .That’s a lot of money to be missing.Why nothing said about that ?
Hey let’s raise more taxes in Oensacola and Escambia county so we can bail out a pathetic Century mayor and all the cronies under his wing…you know…raise a tax and call it the ..loser tax. Hawking’s is the poster boy for loser management. Been going on for years
Pity Sunrise.
May the force be with you.
A step in a better direction.
I hope the city of Sunrise was given a heads up by Century.
Century can’t lose what it didn’t have in the way of a nonexistent manager. Now hire someone who will move the gas department in a positive direction.
The idiom, “like rats leaving a sinking ship” comes to mind. Wally is getting out of dodge, well Century, before Buz finds all the buried bodies.