EVANSVILLE — The handwritten sign outside Angelo’s Italian Restaurant on Thursday bespoke frustration, grievance and, yes, anger, its author says.
“Angelos’ will NOT Serve Center Point Employees and those WHO Affiliate With THEM!!” it declared. “Sorry for the inconvenience, but WE have been INCONVENIENCED!!”
Angelo’s longtime owner Angelo Jawabreh told the Courier & Press that high CenterPoint Energy bills at his business and in his home the past two months are to blame for his written outburst.
“I have to sell every day about 10 entrees just to cover for the costs of electric,” Jawabreh said. “I’ve got a small house also, very small house. The month before I paid like, maybe $380, $400, and last month was $781.”
Angelo’s typically pays $2,600 or $2,800 for electric, Jawabreh said. Last month’s bill? Almost $4,000.
Jawabreh is not alone. Many CenterPoint customers are struggling to pay more expensive bills.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission released its annual electric residential bill survey earlier this month. It found that, for bills issued as of July 1, Evansville-area residents using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month saw their bills jump 24.87% compared to 2024 – part of a controversial, multi-tiered rate hike the IURC approved last year despite vehement opposition from both ratepayers and local elected officials.
Jawabreh said he’s lucky in that he can afford his higher bills when many CenterPoint customers struggle with them. It was really for them that he posted his sign, he said.
“I feel bad for the families who live on fixed income, salary that doesn’t cover that much,” he said. “That means they have to maybe not eat that much or save on gas or save on something, I don’t know.”
Angelo’s isn’t the only local business making its feelings about CenterPoint’s recent bills known.
Arcademie, a Downtown Evansville arcade bar, is planning a blackout event on Wednesday. Arcademie will turn off its lights, games and gas for the kitchen on that day.
“We’re shutting everything off that won’t spoil the food, warm the beverages, or risk your health,” the bar posted to Facebook. “It’s as battery operated an evening as we can make it. And we’d love to (sort of) see you.”
Arcademie also pledged to cut their rates by the same percentage CenterPoint has raised theirs, calling it a “utility-based happy hour.”
Jawabreh said his customers overwhelmingly have been supportive of the sign outside Angelo’s and the sentiments behind it. There’s been just one negative response — a woman who called, saying her husband is a CenterPoint employee and demanding that he take his sign down.
That’s not going to happen, Jawabreh vowed.
“I’m going to keep it up for months and months,” he said. “I don’t care.”
Angelo’s isn’t actually trying to identify CenterPoint employees and sympathizers, Jawabreh said. The sign is a peaceful protest, emphasis on the word “peaceful.” And it isn’t directed at CenterPoint employees who climb poles or other rank-and-file workers, many of whom work hard at their jobs, he said.
Who, then? Jawabreh’s answer embodied the spirit of protests, peaceful and not-so-peaceful, throughout human history.
“CEOs, bosses, big shots — people who control basically everything,” he said.
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