Patrice Quintero, a spokesperson for Colorado Springs Utilities, says the company’s getting a “high” number of calls from residents about their December gas bills.

Quintero said she, too, was personally caught off guard by her own utility bill and called Utilities to find out why it was so high. Some disbelieving customers have asked that Utilities to come out and take a second reading of their meters.

“We’ve been having extremely cold weather,” she said. “It’s easy to go over to the thermostat and bump it up.”

Colorado Springs Utilities began receiving inquiries from customers in November following October’s cold snap. Those calls, she said, have turned into a “deluge.”

Quintero didn’t have firm figures on the number of calls. CSU employees had the day off and no one was answering their cell phones, she said.

The solution: Turn down the thermostat when you go to work and put on a horse blanket when you come home.

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