Russellville Electric Board Manager Charles Canida, flanked by a police escort, disconnected the United States Post Office's electricity last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Franklin Free Press has learned.
According to a source who was present the morning of the disconnect, Canida came to the Russellville Post Office along with several Russellville police officers and two utility trucks and cut off the power at the county's main post office. This happened last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic was still at the forefront of national news.
The disconnect also cut off electricity to the neighboring building, which houses a local law firm, according to Arthur Elliott, a former Russellville Electric Board member, who was on the board at the time of the incident.
Russellville Postmaster Tim Eli declined comment about the incident but he did confirm the disconnect and said power was off for approximately five hours that day.
According to a source, there had never been an issue with nonpayment by the Post Office. The postmaster must go through the same procedure each month of requesting a payment order for the electric bill. But this particular month, postal officials did not receive their invoice until a few days before it would become past due.
Postal officials pleaded with Canida not to disconnect electricity to the building, as that would interrupt the flow of mail, including REB invoices, to the community. But Canida ordered the disconnect anyway, and personally came to the Post Office to supervise.
Elliott said the board was not contacted by Canida prior to his decision to cut off power to the Post Office.
“I asked him if this was something he should bring to the board, and he said the board had nothing to do with it,” Elliott said.
Additionally, Elliott spoke with City of Russellville officials asking them to support a policy whereby essential businesses/governmental offices would not have their power disconnected until after city officials were made aware of the issue and given the opportunity to correct the problem.
“I thought that would be a way to resolve any issues before taking the major leap to cut off the post office, hospital or any other essential business,” Elliott said.
The police escort came after Canida's allegations that the postmaster threatened him and/or another REB employee, during their conversations prior to the cutoff, the source said.
The FFP reached out to Canida for comment, but he failed to respond to the request.
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