Jill's Journal: The city utility bill that wouldn’t go away

The last city utility bill I received at the Journal office is one of those bills that just wouldn’t go away.

Like all city utility users, the monthly bill arrived in my email. I printed it out and added it to the stack of invoices for our accountant to handle. As it turns out, our numbers guy thought I had already taken care of the monthly bill, which, of course, I hadn’t.

So, I hauled out the checkbook, gave it my “John Hancock” and delivered it to City Hall well-ahead of the due date. Job done.

Then, I received a late notice, which of course, piqued my curiosity.

A phone call to the city revealed the check was MIA, which had me questioning myself – and my sanity. I looked through notes, peeked under the seats in my car and even straightened up my desk. But there was no check in sight to be found.

My call to City Hall also revealed that “late notices” went out by mistake, and no one would be required to fork over the extra late-charge change.

At this point of the game, I hauled out the checkbook once again, gave it my “John Hancock” and once again delivered it to City Hall, this time making sure the check was accounted for.

In the meantime, another “late notice” arrived in the mailbox, along with a visit from the landlord who had also received the same “late notice” greeting from the city that I had just tossed away in the garbage can. I rattled off a condensed version of the story to the landlord about the city utility bill that just wouldn’t go away.

He smiled. I shrugged.

And with that, the city utility bill that just wouldn’t go away turned into a topic for this ol’ editor’s column.