During this awful winter, I was waking before 5 am to hit the gym at opening. I wore sweats – I wasn’t going to run the heaters just for me as I’d be warmed up in ten minutes. But as I walked down the frigid hallway, I would feel warm jets blasting out from the doorway of the darkened common room. If it wasn’t there when I was getting into the gym, it was always there when I left. Usually with the sound on the television blaring as well.
I was curious why the room was always heated so early in the morning. One morning at 5 am, I asked a security guard if there was anybody inside. He told me it was open and empty, so I walked in. Every single heater was on and set to 90 degrees. That means that all heaters in that room had been going at full blast without stopping for hours - although the temperature was in the 80s, it would never get hot enough against the frigid cold to turn any of the heaters off. I flipped them all off.
When I left the gym at 6:30, I discovered why the heat was blasting, and perhaps left on through the day and maybe never checked. The elevator contractor was using the room before dawn for his personal comfort.
As I was leaving the gym, he was walking out the common room to use the men's facilities, and all heaters were blazing again. The blast I felt when he opened the door was unbelievable; the TV was all the way up to be heard over the noise of all heaters running at max. After speaking with security, I was told he showed up as early as 6 am to set up shop and eat his breakfast in comfort, hours before work begins.
Why are we allowing a contractor to use thousands of dollars of common electric services for his personal comfort, is a question I cannot answer. I suspect the heaters were left on during the day any time they were using the room. Who knows when, if ever, those heaters were turned off. They were on just about every morning I worked out – 3-4 times during the week.
This is either a huge over-extension of concessions, or another example of how the board isn't paying as much attention to controlling the expenses that make up common charges or assessments, but uses those mechanisms to make up for shortfalls that come with short-sightedness. Sure, we need to give them electricity to run their tools; but should we really be giving them free access to a room that we charge residents to use, while giving them thousands of dollars of free heat in the process?
I think its time to recognize that finding ways of reducing common charge and assessment burdens are as important a goal as acting on necessary, preventative measures that require assessments.
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