For months, RBS Gas Utility customers wondered where their bills were. Now, although they are receiving bills, they may well wonder where RBS Gas Utility is.
But recent action by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) will ensure that gas continues to flow to people in Red Boiling Springs.
Customers, including the city of Red Boiling Springs, have been unable to reach Ed Ayers, the owner of the company, by phone. Neither can messages be left on Ayers' phone. By its own report, the automated answering service is full of messages and won't record more.
The TRA recently issued a letter to Ed Ayers, owner of the utility company, asking for certain information, according to Julie Woodruff, advisor to Chairman Ron Jones. The information was due by April 12.
If the requested information couldn't be delivered by the 12th, the letter went on to say, Ayers should appear at the TRA Conference to be held April 17 and 18.
Ayers did neither. Although some information was received on the 18th, Woodruff said it was too late to be included in the conference.
An addendum to the final conference agenda, section one, scheduled an explanation by RBS Gas of its failure to comply with Tennessee statutes and TRA requests, rules, and orders in conducting business as a public utility in Tennessee.
In Ayers absence, TRA directors discussed the situation and authorized their legal council department to take whatever action is necessary to make sure that gas continues to flow to RBS Gas Utility customers.
Phone calls to Red Boiling Springs city hall indicate that the utility company has been sending bills to its customers, according to Red Boiling Springs city recorder Coby Knight, but the bills are not correct. Hence the phone calls to the city, which can do nothing about any of it.
In fact, Ayers has failed to pay Red Boiling Springs the ad valorem taxes it owes, as assessed by the state comptroller's office, for almost two years now. Due last July, the 2005 tax amounted to $3,287.77. The ad valorem tax for 2006 is due on July 1.
Neither has RBS Gas paid the franchise fees as assessed by the Red Boiling Springs city council. That fee, unpaid since June of 2003, is 2% of the utility company's gross operating revenue.
RBS Gas Utility buys the gas that it delivers to Red Boiling Springs customers from Atmos Energy, the country's largest natural gas-only distributor.
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