POUGHKEEPSIE – Some two dozen area residents marched on Central Hudson Gas and Electric’s headquarters in Poughkeepsie on Thursday to express their dismay over the utility’s electric bills.
The members of Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, a housing rights organization, told personal stories of their difficulty in paying their bills.
Tanya Barber, who lives in the City of Poughkeepsie, said she is faced
with having her electricity shut off.
“I have a one-year-old grandson living in my household,” Barber said. “My concern is if they shut off my lights, he won ‘t be able to take a bath, he won’t be able to eat, he won’t be able to do nothing because I have nothing in the house for him.”
Zakiyyah Salahuddin, also of Poughkeepsie, is equally as upset.
“We are being robbed in our community,” said Salahuddin. “We are being given bills that are unaccounted for. When questioned, there is no one that can give us answers as to why our bills are so blown up.”
Angela Newman, a Poughkeepsie resident of 25 years, said she is paying 20 percent of her $730 monthly income to Central Hudson.
Utility spokesman John Maserjian said they will review the literature the group left “just as we would any other customer.”