Bangor Hydro Cutting Electric Service To Nearly 40% Of It's Customers (electric bill, car)
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That's not true. It couldn't be ME. And I'll tell you why. I was once a single mom of four kids, and it wasn't that long ago. Winter came and we struggled. I made phone calls, I set payment arrangements, and I did what I needed to do. It wasn't easy, but it worked. Many, many people are like me....if they recognize that there may be a problem paying a bill, they get on the phone and humbling as it may be, explain the circumstances. I believe that MOST companies and people will work with you, even turn themselves inside out, if they believe you are willing to pay your bill as soon as you are able. So NO, it couldn't be any one of us.
I agree with Mollysmiles here wholeheartedly. In my youth I might have been the type to choose taking a girl on a date over paying the cable tv bill for a month but I always paid before the collection notices came. After I got married however my wife laid down the law telling me in no uncertain terms she would not tolerate bills that are not paid BEFORE they are due. The bills now are paid when the notice arrives not at the end of the month. She is the most steadfast bill payer(excluding Mollysmiles) I have ever seen. She has been known to even double pay on occasion. We usually run a negative balance with the electric company. We carry no creditcard debt, no mortgage, and I have a year old loan on a new motorcycle we plan to pay off next week. My daughter is the same way. Instead of taking a useless vacation to Cancun or something after graduating college she took her graduation gift money ,paid her rent in her new apartment ahead three months, bought some furniture, and banked the rest.
We have had some tough times here and there over that last 25 years though one thing we never did was let household bills go unpaid.
So no, it couldn't be any of us!
To throw more into this mix - you can't blame just Mainers for not paying their Bangor Hydro bill - don't forget people like us from "away" who probably kept the electric on in their summer or vacation homes during the winter. Our bill was only $15.00 a month through the winter and we paid it every month - but I'm betting there are some people who just didn't pay it because they don't live in Maine. They probably would just send a lump sum payment when they get the cut off notice in the Spring.
This is possible though very unlikely. People who own property on the shore in Maine are of a much different class of people than many of us are used to. Most people who own houses here as summer residents have a property manager to take care of maintenence when they are not around. They get the place opened up in spring get the gardens taken care of,the dock put in, the boats painted and overhauled, the patio furniture and outside entertainment areas set up, etc,etc.
They also put the place to bed in the fall whether that means just closing the place up or draining pipes etc. is up to the owner. Some owners like to come up once in a while in winter around Christmas for the holiday ambiance. Many of these property managers work exclusively for one property. I know a man who owns a famous map company in Maine who has two full time employees taking care of his property year round.
The electric bill is of no consequence to these people. They never see it.
To read some posts one would conclude that Mainers are the salt of the earth, hard working, God fearing, secret santa's ready to help out in time of need, resourceful and proud-- good stock winnowed out by natural selection to be the best, shrewdest, noble and proud survivors...but then these same Princes of Maine are brandy swilling rascals who are too lazy to work; losers who are driving around in new SUV's to pick up their welfare checks and enduring 40 below zero weather in unheated double wide trailors watching their wide screen TV's and avoiding eviction until April.
(This is said in humor as I see humor in some of the comments).
I agree with Mollysmiles here wholeheartedly. In my youth I might have been the type to choose taking a girl on a date over paying the cable tv bill for a month but I always paid before the collection notices came. After I got married however my wife laid down the law telling me in no uncertain terms she would not tolerate bills that are not paid BEFORE they are due. The bills now are paid when the notice arrives not at the end of the month. She is the most steadfast bill payer(excluding Mollysmiles) I have ever seen. She has been known to even double pay on occasion. We usually run a negative balance with the electric company. We carry no creditcard debt, no mortgage, and I have a year old loan on a new motorcycle we plan to pay off next week. My daughter is the same way. Instead of taking a useless vacation to Cancun or something after graduating college she took her graduation gift money ,paid her rent in her new apartment ahead three months, bought some furniture, and banked the rest.
We have had some tough times here and there over that last 25 years though one thing we never did was let household bills go unpaid.
So no, it couldn't be any of us!
It is one thing to be broke, but to have a college education and resources of life experience and written and verbal and math skills and can see light at the end of the tunnel; it is quite something else to have experienced multiple life failures, dissappointment, to be lacking in ego strengths and problem solving skills and to be broke.....one is temporary and motivates one to find a way....the later is dibilitating and not quickly remediable.
This is possible though very unlikely. People who own property on the shore in Maine are of a much different class of people than many of us are used to. Most people who own houses here as summer residents have a property manager to take care of maintenence when they are not around. They get the place opened up in spring get the gardens taken care of,the dock put in, the boats painted and overhauled, the patio furniture and outside entertainment areas set up, etc,etc.
They also put the place to bed in the fall whether that means just closing the place up or draining pipes etc. is up to the owner. Some owners like to come up once in a while in winter around Christmas for the holiday ambiance. Many of these property managers work exclusively for one property. I know a man who owns a famous map company in Maine who has two full time employees taking care of his property year round.
The electric bill is of no consequence to these people. They never see it.
That comment makes way too many assumptions about people who own summer homes. Most people I know have someone to check on their house when they are away (maybe a property manager or maybe a friend), but they open the house themselves, do their own gardens, rarely have boats, do their own painting and maintenance and carefully watch how they spend their money. The electric bill, along with all the other bills, is definitely of consequence to most home owners.
(Of course, none of these people own a map company, either.)
... Mainers are the salt of the earth, hard working, God fearing, secret santa's ready to help out in time of need, resourceful and proud,
... good stock winnowed out by natural selection to be the best, shrewdest, noble and proud survivors.
... Princes of Maine,
... brandy swilling rascals who are too lazy to work;
... driving around in new SUV's to pick up their welfare checks;
and enduring 40 below zero weather in unheated double wide trailors watching their wide screen TV's and avoiding eviction until April.
Ah-yup!
Though you forgot:
Salmon and bass fishing;
turkey, deer, bear and moose hunting;
fiddlehead, cranberry, blueberry, lamb's quarter, dandelion, raspberry, strawberry, pine nut, chestnut, crab apple, and mushroom picking;
That comment makes way too many assumptions about people who own summer homes. Most people I know have someone to check on their house when they are away (maybe a property manager or maybe a friend), but they open the house themselves, do their own gardens, rarely have boats, do their own painting and maintenance and carefully watch how they spend their money. The electric bill, along with all the other bills, is definitely of consequence to most home owners.
(Of course, none of these people own a map company, either.)
Perhaps up your way things are different. Down here below the Volvo line there are property management companies doing brisk business on coast. I'm not talking about the little summer cottages that USED to dot the coast around here where folks would spend the summer and do their own chores ...most of those have been replaced by large homes down this way. When the property tax on a cottage hit over $10,000 a year a huge number of them were sold, demolished and replaced by larger year round homes by people of extraordinary means. These people do not do their own chores, painting, boat maintenence, gardening, lawn work or anything else...they don't have to. They have lots of money! The south coast of Maine has taken on the look and feel of Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket over the last twenty years with no end in sight. These are the people who could care less what the price of gas is, the electric bill and those things. They fly in for the weekend. If you're still not convinced take a ride along the coastal areas here from York Beach to Camden,Kittery Point and other areas. They are becoming gated communities not unlike the smaller inlet towns and villages along the coast of Florida. The surge in coastal property changing hands permanenently has not hit the northern coast of Maine YET. The distances and travel time have some role in that and the fact that alot of "necessities" like convenient shopping are a distance from the coast. It will happen though and eventually folks up that way will be taxed out of their cottages and summer places just like they have been down this way.
It is one thing to be broke, but to have a college education and resources of life experience and written and verbal and math skills and can see light at the end of the tunnel; it is quite something else to have experienced multiple life failures, dissappointment, to be lacking in ego strengths and problem solving skills and to be broke.....one is temporary and motivates one to find a way....the later is dibilitating and not quickly remediable.
Elston, I couldn't rep you (had to spread some around...), but I love your compassion. Not everyone has the means to pull themselves out of a bad situation.
Thank God my Mom raised me right, and pointed me on the path to independence. Not everyone had the luxury of a good family. My Dad was(is) an extreme and violent alcoholic, but my Mom was able to get away from him while he was serving some (a lot of) time in the penitentiary. She returned from the big city of Regina to her family in rural southwest Saskatchewan. She was grateful that she had a place to return and raise her three kids.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't take responsibility for their lives, but sometimes circumstances and abilities do come into play.
It is one thing to be broke, but to have a college education and resources of life experience and written and verbal and math skills and can see light at the end of the tunnel; it is quite something else to have experienced multiple life failures, dissappointment, to be lacking in ego strengths and problem solving skills and to be broke.....one is temporary and motivates one to find a way....the later is dibilitating and not quickly remediable.
That's why antidepressants are the fastest growing form of prescription drug in America.
If one just can't cope being left behind by the advance of their peers and society in general the State will subsidize their treatment. MD's are more than willing to prescribe a new outlook on life to the downtrodden.
If you will all check the "correction notices" in today's Bangor Daily News you will see that the % of people receiving shut off notices was WRONG. Actually it should have read 8000 customers.
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