Meeker School Supt. Jeff Pruitt said this week he has sent a letter of protest to a third party gas vendor about the exorbitant bill the district received in March. Along with the letter, he sent a payment that he believes was appropriate, he noted.
Pruitt explained on Tuesday, “I got in touch finally with a representative of Symmetry Energy Solutions and that person at Symmetry didn’t give me any immediate solution to the problem.”
He was told by the person at Symmetry Energy that he would take a look at the letter and send it on up the channels.
“I mailed the letter on March 30,” Pruitt stated Tuesday.
Pruitt said with the letter he sent a payment of $2,743.39, which was 19 percent more than the district’s January bill.
That payment came from the district’s building fund. “That’s where our utility bills are paid from,” he stated previously.
When Pruitt returned from Spring Break last month, he discovered February’s gas bill for the district had arrived totaling $51,702.78.
Pruitt said even though Oklahoma Natural Gas is the district’s gas supplier, the bill came from a third party vendor, Symmetry Energy Solutions.
Pruitt said this week that he stated in his letter to Symmetry Energy and also told the person he talked to that amount equated to five years worth of annual encumbrances for a third party gas supplier.
Pruitt pointed out, “Annually, we pay about $10,000 to the third party gas supplier.”
Pointing again to the $51,702.78 gas bill for February, Pruitt has emphasized in comparison the district’s highest bill among the previous three months was for $2,305 and that was for January. In November, it was $1,202 and December’s totaled $1,879.
He said he informed Symmetry in his letter that the district shouldn’t have to pay any penalty or interest on not receiving their full payment. He’s asked Symmetry officials to check out the legitimacy of the bill.
State Rep. Kevin Wallace helped him get in touch with someone at Symmetry Energy, the superintendent said. “No one yet from Symmetry Energy has returned the phone calls I made after receiving that bill,” Pruitt stressed this week.
He said Wallace was very helpful. Pruitt said in addition to Wallace he had contacted his State Sen. Zack Taylor and also State Sen. Roger Thompson who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“And all three have gotten back and have been very helpful,” he said.
“Our buildings were closed for seven days during that snowstorm and they are on automatic thermostats. It was an absurd price for sure,” Pruitt feels.
“Third party gas suppliers are supposed to be a cost saving measure,” he explained.
Pruitt’s convinced the action he has taken in response to the bill is appropriate. He hasn’t heard anymore since Symmetry Energy received the letter.
He also contacted the Corporation Commission after receiving the bill, “and they said call the company. Didn’t receive a lot of assistance from the Commission,” he said.