(Traverse City, Michigan) — At the last Traverse City Light & Power Board meeting (December 9), $15,710 was approved to be distributed equally among the Father Fred Foundation, Love INC, the Salvation Army and the Northwest Michigan Human Services Agency. The funds are derived from Light & Power’s “red tag” warning program of possible service termination. The red tag program results in a fee being charged to those customers who are in the final step to collect an overdue bill after three previously mailed notices have not been responded to by those customers.

Since 1996, when Light and Power implemented the red tag fee, L&P has donated over $96,000 to area agencies.

                 “These donations will assist agencies that regularly help local people in need,” said Linda Johnson, Chairman of the L&P Board. “Given these harsh economic times, we anticipate more people may need assistance this year in paying their bills. That is why we are making a full donation of the red tag fee funds Light and Power has collected to date, rather than waiting until springtime to make a donation. We know these donations have been helpful over the years and we are confident the money will be well spent.”  

According to L&P, one of the reasons the red tag fee was instituted was to

discourage the practice by some customers of not paying their bill until someone from the

utility showed up at their door to collect.

Traverse City Light & Power (www.tclp.org) is a community-owned, community-focused municipal utility that offers reliable energy at low rates in the region to over 10,000 customers in Traverse City, and parts of Blair, East Bay, Elmwood, Garfield, Peninsula and Paradise townships.