Electric Bill for Traffic Light Has Homeowner Seeing Red
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OAKLAND — The notice to Eddie Mae Wright from Pacific Gas & Electric was ominous: “Second Notice,” it said in bold letters. No doubt about it, Wright was being dunned for $137.15.
The bill is for the power that operates a new traffic light in front of her house at 10th and Adeline streets.
When she first started getting the strange bills in August, Wright said, she was tickled. But that $137.15 bill she got last week left her decidedly unamused.
Wright said she went to a utility office and was assured that residents aren’t billed for traffic lights no matter how close they are to a house, and that an attempt was being made to get the right address for City Hall.
“It’s just down the road a ways,” she said.
“A stupid clerical error,” said PG&E; spokesman Harry Arnott. “We are fixing it.”
Wright, not convinced, says: “I can hardly wait for the November billing.”
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