ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Seeking a permit, may be a license or even just trying to pay a bill?
WATCH: Cheaper to close in Howard County
Not at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City on Friday, and some were confused by it.
“I mean I thought they were open,” said Narien Reddy, “If I look at the business hours on the door, it says they’re open on Friday.”
Others were down right frustrated.
“It’s tough. It’s like here I am, I’m spending all this money and I’m trying to get my liquor license and they’re not answering emails and phone calls, because I’ve been trying to reach them for three days now,” said Ryan Fichter, a restauranteur from Montgomery County who is trying to open a new location here, “So I took time out of my day to come down here and how do you know that they’re even open?”
A search online suggests this is the third of 31 Energy Saving Days at county buildings planned for this year and it assures residents that employees will still be working from home.
“How much are they getting done in their underwear?” You know what I mean?” asked an exasperated Joe McDevitt of Severn who was seeking a plumbing permit.
We asked a fully-clothed Brandee Ganz, the chief administrative officer of the county, to explain the benefits of such a program.
“This actually produces about 400 thousand dollars in savings per year,” said Ganz, “and those savings are based upon not only the energy that we’re saving in the buildings, but also the water and sewer for those days, the staff and personnel that were supposed to be in the buildings, the fuel and energy costs that we’re saving with keeping those vehicles off the road.”
But not everyone is convinced of the benefits.
“It looks like they’re running AC in the building right now, and I don’t know if they’re saving the energy or not,” said Reddy.
Especially when you learn that the county’s savings may come at your expense.
“Complete waste of everybody’s time,” said Fichter, “I mean how much carbon did I burn getting here in my car, you know? It’s like… it doesn’t make any sense.”
