NW Illinois News

City of East Dubuque Utilities Committee met July 29.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Please Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance

1. Call to Order – Chair Burgmeier

2. Roll Call – City Clerk McCarthy

Start Time: 5:00 pm

Alderperson Fluhr, Alderperson Degenhardt and Mayor Digman

3. Presentation and Discussion – Administrative Assistant Desiree Scharpf

a. How the water billing system works

We do an application of services and termination of services these need to be filled out when someone leaves and moves in. Problems we have are when there is a death, or a renter moves without giving us a forwarding address.

Meter Reading

This is done monthly around the 20th. These are radio reads.

Billing

These are then sent out the day after we have done the meter reading. The minimum is 96.18 a month which is 2,000 gal or less.

Door Hangers

Are then done after the 15th so around the 18th they receive a late notice then ten days after that we can do a door hanger. Penalties are added as soon as the pink notice goes out.

Shut-Off

Think there should be a minimum as to how much we can let a bill go until they are shut off. We cannot do shut offs on a Friday or holiday because we need to be able to turn them back on after 24 hrs. We do them at noon.

Restoring Service

They need to be present when we turn them back on in case there is a leak, or someone left faucets on. We are not responsible for those.

b. Fines and Penalties

If they call, we will work with them on payment plans or just a later date to pay. Call out after hours to shut off that we should charge them.

4. Issues:

a. Multiple residences on one bill

We have multiple residences on one service. Instead of all four paying a fixed charge they only get charged for the extra water that is being used. We have apartments that are only being charged for one service instead of all the apartments in the building. The question would be how aggressive the council would like us to check into this.

b. Special Circumstances

We have things in code that you see but the code does not always work for that situation. A person was shut off a couple of years ago and the new owner was then left with the $18,000 bill because most of it was penalties. So, we were able to take it down to the water that was used. Another one is $50,000 and they are not paying the bill. So, then they had a relative call that wanted the bill to go down, but we are not going to reduce for the same owner that would not pay bill. But if it is a new owner, we will work with them on the bill.

c. Garbage Bag Mandate

Suggested from a citizen that we are required to have garbage and recycling in trash bags to keep the fly aways down. But we are not able to do it for recycling they will think it is trash and not pick up. Would be something to be considered.

5. Adjournment

End Time: 5:50 pm

Chair Burgmeier adjourned.

https://www.cityofeastdubuque.com/agenda/minutes/july-29-2024-utilities-committee