Girard woman put off calls for utility to check the meter, is cut off

Girard woman put off calls for utility to check the meter

GIRARD -- A 72-year-old woman with a heart condition and difficulty walking learned the hard way not to ignore cards from Dominion East Ohio Gas.

The utility had been asking to allow someone to enter her residence to check on the gas meter.

Susan Monaco, 525 Forsythe Ave., thought the furnace of the ranch-style, single-family home was not working on Friday when she returned home from the funeral of a life-long friend.

Outside temperatures fell that night to a low of 31.

"No one called to say they were going to turn off the gas," Monaco said.

She attempted to use an electric space heater, but when it was switched on, the circuit breaker would flip, causing other areas of the house to lose power.

Monaco has lived in the vinyl-sided house for more than 56 years and said she's always paid her gas bill on time.

On Saturday, she called for someone to check operation of the furnace. It did not take long to determine the problem was not at all the furnace: Dominion Energy Ohio had turned off the gas from outside of the house.

When she called Saturday, she was told company would not be able to send someone to get the gas turned back on until Monday.

Saturday evening's temperature dropped as low as 27.

"I have an electric blanket that I was able to get under," she said. "I just went to bed earlier."

Donald Voelkle, son-in-law of the woman whose funeral Monaco had attended on Friday, invited Monaco to stay with him and his wife over the weekend.

"She wanted to go back home," he said.

METER CHECKS

Voelkle said Monaco misunderstood the hanger left on her door about the need for someone to enter the household to read the meter.

"I told the company's representative that I spoke to on the phone on Monday that it would look particularly bad if Mrs. Monaco dies or suffered injuries while waiting for them to turn her gas back on," Voelkle said.

Tracy Oliver, a spokeswoman with Dominion Energy Ohio, said it has been the company's policy to have a representative stop by every customer location once per year to check the meters.

"We did not enforce the once-a-year inspection as much as during the height of the pandemic," Oliver said.

Oliver said the company gives its customers multiple opportunities to contact them to make arrangement for its inspectors to enter their homes to check the meter.

Monaco admits receiving at least two postcards in October and November notifying her of the company's need to get into the house for the inspection. During the pandemic's worst months, Monaco said she was not going to allow anyone in the house.

"Why would they send people out to people who have been paying their bill during this time of COVID?" she said. "I thought they were crazy."

Although her gas was turned back on Monday morning, Monaco wondered about what would happen to people who are bedridden and cannot get to their doors.