Holiday Inn's power shut off briefly

SHEFFIELD - Holiday Inn guests woke up Friday morning without electricity after the utilities were shut off reportedly because the hotel failed to pay its utility bill.

From 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday, the hotel was without power, according to hotel officials.

Sheffield Utilities gives customers at least 14 days notice when their electricity is in jeopardy of being shut off because of non-payment, said Sheffield Utilities General Manager Allen Hughes, who declined to confirm whether the hotel utilities had been shut off.

Peter Mathon, a spokesman for Kronos Kronos Hotels and Resorts LLC, which controlled the lease on the hotel, was unaware the utilities had been shut off until he was contacted for a comment.

"I have no idea why the utilities were shut off. I would imagine the utility company would have to tell you that," Mathon said. "What we did specifically I do not know. They turned off the power for some reason."

Mathon said Friday afternoon that he was looking into the matter.

Monk and Millie Dauenhauer, hotel guests from the New Orleans area, verified that their electricity was shut off around 9 a.m. Friday.

Monk said he joked with hotel workers that "someone forgot to pay the light bill."

The couple came to watch their grandson, who plays football with Southern Arkansas. The first game of the University of North Alabama football season featured the two teams Thursday night. Southern Arkansas players returned home on the team bus after the game. The Dauenhauers left Friday to return home.

"We couldn't very well stay here if the electricity was off," Monk Dauenhauer said.

Kronos recently lost and then regained the Holiday Inn flagship because of payment problems. Last week, the Sheffield City Council terminated the lease with Kronos, which it had through a company called Portfolio Sheffield. The lease was terminated because of defaulted payments of taxes, according to city officials.

By 11:30 a.m., employees were sent home, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous because of the company's policy of firing workers who talk with the media. By 2 p.m., the hotel was operational, according to a desk clerk who answered the phone.

"I don't think we can show special treatment to the owners of the Holiday Inn and treat them any different than any other utility customer," Councilman Waylon Huguley Jr. said.

Huguley said the responsibility to pay the utility bill in a timely manner rests on the shoulders of the hotel's owners and that adequate notice was given to the hotel's

management.

"We have established there is a trend," Huguley said, referring to the problems the hotel has had in making utility and lodging tax payments in the past.

"It's just a bad situation," Huguley said. "I hate if for the fact that by all appearances, the place does very good business and has been an asset to Sheffield as well as the whole area."

He said the utility being shut off, which was carried out in accordance with utility department policy, does not cast the city or its utility department in a bad light.

"We have bent over backwards to work with this company," Huguley said. "We're going to protect the property and our assets."

Council members terminated the lease with Portfolio Sheffield on Aug. 22.

The company was given 15 days to renegotiate the lease.

Huguley said the city council wanted to allow some time to pass before deciding its next move.

"There are definitely other options on the table," he said.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.

Staff Writer Russ Corey contributed to this report.