“No Disruption” – Albee Residents to Keep Utilities Despite ConEdison Notice
Photo Courtesy of Colby McCaskill
On-campus residents at Albee recently received letters from ConEdison sent on March 13 requiring The King’s College to pay its outstanding balance, or else face a utility shut-off tomorrow, March 21.
“We are sorry,” the letter read, “but your service will be turned off unless payment…is received by March 21, 2023.”
A ConEdison employee with knowledge of the situation informed the Empire State Tribune that the letter is simply a first warning and that King’s students are not in danger of losing utilities in the next few months.
“If you [have] anything over $40 remaining on your account from your prior bill, we’ll automatically generate a disconnect notice. That doesn’t mean that we're coming out there to turn your service off right away,” the ConEdison employee said.
No King’s administrator informed students living in on-campus housing of the incoming notices beforehand.
Dean of Students David Leedy sent out an internal email after the fact around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, March 20.
In the email, he confirmed that “there will be no disruption to your ConEdison service,” and added that “we will address this at today's Community Update as well.”
According to a ConEdison employee, the energy conglomerate has not shut off power from “anyone” since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020. Once ConEdison resumes its shut-off policy, the process still takes multiple months to complete, and would likely not risk a shut-off of Albee utilities for King’s students this semester.
For the most part, ConEdison’s records indicate that “every month, [King’s is] making payments.”
The notice, dated March 13, 2023, may have gone unnoticed by school officials due to spring break from March 13 to 17.
“They have a lot of these accounts,” the ConEdison employee explained, “and most of the time they have these accounts [of this kind] on autopay.”
According to the ConEdison Employee and Leedy’s internal email, King’s paid around $100 for each apartment on Friday, March 10 and another $120 on Monday, March 13. This leaves more or less $160 to be paid for each apartment for the February bill.
ConEdison, per company policy, also requires corporate accounts to put down a security deposit on the next bill as a result of any missed payments. With a “deposit request for $260,” King’s supposedly still owes around $420 per apartment.
Whether The King’s College was aware that such notices were coming is inconclusive at this time.
Leedy attested in the email that “all notices and bills are supposed to be sent to the College as the College holds the accounts and not to student apartments.”
The ConEdison letter stated that “Our records indicated that our bills are being mailed to: ATTN: BUSINESS OFFICE, 56 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY, 10004,” King’s official address.
Leedy, in the email update, guaranteed the student body that “we are actively working to ensure this does not happen again.”
During The King’s College’s bi-weekly community update today, Dr. Matthew Parks mentioned the shut-off notices, saying “We’ve been in touch with ConEdison. There's not going to be any disruption of service. No need to worry about that.” Parks declined to comment further.
Colby McCaskill is a freshman at The King’s College majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society. He is also the City Editor for the Empire State Tribune. He loves to write and enjoys long runs in the rain.