Thursday 28th March 2024

GEPB told CARES Act funding cannot be used to aid in overdue electric bills

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Marlin Witcher, city councilperson for the Glasgow City Council and board member for the GEPB, listens during a previous meeting of the GEPB. Witcher updated the GEPB on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, regarding the possible use of CARES Act funding disbursed to the City of Glasgow.

GLASGOW, Ky. – The Glasgow Electric Plant Board received feedback from Glasgow City Hall regarding the possible use of CARES Act funding to aid in unpaid electric bills – the money cannot be used.

William Ray, the Superintendent of the Glasgow Electric Plant Board, sent a letter to Glasgow Mayor Harold Armstrong to inquire about access to some of the CARES Act money disbursed to the City of Glasgow. Ray said he never received correspondence from the mayor.

“We still haven’t heard anything from the city on this CARES Act funding,” Ray said.

Marlin Witcher, GEPB board member and Glasgow City Councilperson, was asked to gain insight into the matter and he said the CARES Act money cannot be used to help customers pay their electric bill and close the gap the EPB faces due to those overdue accounts.

“That CARES money had restrictions on it. It could not be used to pay electric bills,” Witcher said. “Supposedly the second round of CARES Act will be for utilities. If you didn’t use the money as it was supposed to be used, they could make you pay it all back.”

Witcher said Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office told Armstrong that information.

“I was kind of thinking I’d get a letter back,” Ray said. “I didn’t get anything.”

The GEPB sends $4,500 to the Community Relief fund each month to help customers pay their electric bill. The GEPB discontinued disconnects for several months due to an executive order issued by Gov. Andy Beshear, but those disconnects resumed in November. That’s when the fund was needed the most.

“People got serious about finding help,” Ray said. “Basically, three months of our help to Community Relief got expended in vouchers in November.”

The fund issued nearly $15,000 in vouchers in November alone to help pay for electric bills.

It’s unclear whether Beshear will reinstate the order requiring utilities to discontinue disconnects.

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