Town officials will hold a meeting with utility account holders in the community in the near future to try to limit the amount of money owed to the town from overdue accounts.
Garth Lucas, the town's director of corporate services, said about $3,500 is outstanding in any given month on utility accounts with the amount getting as high as $4,000 per month and sometimes as low as $3,200 per month. While the town passed a bylaw in 2010 to limit the amount of uncollectable utility accounts when renters left town by putting accounts only in property owners' names, overdue accounts from owners are still occurring.
Lucas said in an interview that while he recognizes there will always be some people who won't pay their bills on time, he would like to limit the outstanding amounts as much as possible. To accomplish this, the town has begun to shut off water to account holders that don't pay their bills within 30 days of their due date. He said the outstanding amounts vary from month to month but more is often outstanding after Christmas and during the summer months.
During council's policies and priorities committee meeting on Jan. 20, Lucas said people aren't responding the way town officials would like when the town informs them that their water is about to be shut off. As a result, Lucas said he would like overdue utility accounts added to tax bills.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper asked if the town could call a meeting with a focus group of utility account holders and work toward a potential solution on the issue. Norm McInnis, the town's chief administrative officer, said council could get involved in the issue and meet with the account holders. As a result of the discussion at the meeting, town administrators will write a report on the issue and bring it back to councillors for further discussion.
Mayor Judy Dahl said following the meeting that experience has shown that since the town started shutting off water after a bill had not been paid in full, significant staff time is being used up on those accounts. If two subsequent past due notices are generated after the original bill is 30 days past due, then town staff go to the residence after a further seven business days and place door hangers indicating the water will be shut off.
ìThe amount of staff time has increased, almost doubled (dealing with these accounts). The process was meant to make it equal to all taxpayers. We need to sit and talk to key stakeholders. We're very anxious to get this corrected,î Dahl said.
No timeline has been set for the meeting with account holders.
