Detroit Schools And Churches Sued For Unpaid Utility Bills

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Just four months after emerging from bankruptcy, Detroit is going to court to collect a combined $834,000 in unpaid electricity bills from a variety of groups, including schools and churches, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The Rutherford Winans Academy, a charter school affiliated with Pastor Marvin Winans, is among ten organizations the city sued in Wayne County Circuit Court last week to recover unpaid electricity charges, the report says.

From the Detroit Free Press:

The city says the Considine/Little Rock Family Life Center, part of the Rev. Jim Holley’s Historic Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church on Woodward, owes $74,000 for electricity service since January 2013.

The Rutherford Winans Academy, a charter school in northwest Detroit affiliated with Pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church, owes $62,000, court records show…

The lawsuits are part of a crackdown by the administration of Mayor Mike Duggan on electricity deadbeats after the city last summer started shutting off power and issuing other warnings to 38 corporate customers of the Detroit Public Lighting Department collectively owing about $29 million, said the city’s top lawyer, corporation counsel Melvin (Butch) Hollowell.

After emerging from Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in December, Hollowell tells the publication, the city is required “to balance the budget, and that means maximizing the revenues that are due to the city, and this is part of that process.”

SOURCE: Detroit Free Press | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Detroit Charter School Linked To Pastor Marvin Winans Sued For Unpaid Utility Bills  was originally published on newsone.com