Missing Chiefland Utility Bills Reappear as Mysteriously as They Vanished; Postal Service Dodges Questions

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Chiefland City Manager Laura Cain said Tuesday 2,000 city utility bills that disappeared for 12 days in the U.S. Postal Service system mysteriously reappeared at the Chiefland Post Office Tuesday for delivery.

“At least we know they are back in Chiefland. Where they were I have no idea. They may have traveled the world,” Cain said.

The topic of the missing utility bills, which contained the water, sewer, and garbage charges for the previous month, surfaced at the end of Monday’s Chiefland City Commission meeting when Commissioner Rollin Hudson mentioned the issue.

Responding to a board question, Cain told commissioners residents know their utility bills are always due on the 15^th of the month and she wasn’t planning on changing the deadline because of a postal foul-up.

It so happens the city has a policy that if the 15^th of the month falls on a Friday, which it does this week, the bills won’t be due until the following Monday. That means the drop-dead date when the bills must be paid is Tuesday, the 19^th, Cain said.

The city did its part in delivering three white trays of utility bills to the Chiefland Post Office on Friday, Aug. 31, two days after Hurricane Idalia hit Cedar Key, Yankeetown, and other parts of the state. The Post Office accepted payment from the city and employee Rhonda Williams got a receipt.

But the utility bills vanished after the Post Office accepted them for delivery.

In Chiefland, city utility bills apparently are never delivered directly to Chiefland utility customers after the Chiefland Post Office receives them. Cain said the utility bills might be sent to either Gainesville or Jacksonville before being delivered back to Chiefland for mail out to local customers.

“I don’t know if they go to Gainesville or Jacksonville. When the postmaster called Jacksonville, they said, oh, you need to call Gainesville and when she called Gainesville, they said you might want to check with Jacksonville. I am not really sure how the Postal Service works,” Cain said.

City Attorney Blake Fugate told city commissioners the hurricane could be blamed for the missing bills since the disappearance occurred soon after the storm hit, but the bills were hand-delivered to the Chiefland Post Office two days after the storm made landfall near Keaton Beach.

Cain contacted the Chiefland postmaster multiple times to ask for the whereabouts of the missing utility bills. The deadline for payment was approaching and she needed answers.

The Chiefland postmaster declined to identify herself by name when Spotlight called to ask Tuesday how the bills were temporarily lost. She returned one call to Spotlight saying she would get the name and phone number of someone in the Postal Service who could speak about the utility bills.

Carol Hunt, a media contact for the Postal Service, contacted Spotlight on Tuesday and indicated she would provide answers to Spotlight’s questions regarding the Chiefland utility bills and why they disappeared for a period of time, where they were lost, and who was responsible. She was told that the Spotlight story was already written on Tuesday when she called, but would be held until she provided a response to the questions.

Hunt responded Wednesday that she was currently out of the office and had limited access to emails. She gave the names of two other postal officials that could be contacted.

Cain said it was probably coincidental that the utility bills were returned to Chiefland the morning after the city commission discussed the problem at their board meeting.

“I talked to the postmaster yesterday. I’m quite sure the emails she sent out yesterday or whoever she called yesterday raised some flags, or maybe the bills were already en route to Chiefland,” Cain said. “It does seem awfully coincidental, but regardless, at least we know they are not out there floating in space. We were trying to figure out where they were. At least they arrived at the Chiefland Post Office this morning.”

Cain said some of the utility bills had already been delivered to Chiefland customers by early afternoon.