County to crack down on late paying utility users

By DORIS COOK - Staff Writer
Star Beacon

September 06, 2008 05:36 am

— JEFFERSON — More than 600 users of the Ashtabula County water and sewer systems owe money and haven’t paid back bills for months. These customers are now being certified to County Auditor Roger Corlett’s office for collection on the 2008 property tax list.
Ashtabula County Department of Environment Services certified this week the list of tardy customers to Ashtabula County commissioners for action. The board approved passing the list on to Corlett.
DES utilities administrator Vicky Ledford and DES director, Larry Meaney stated there are 221 delinquent water customers owing $37,173.50.
Another 379 customers on the county’s sewer services are delinquent for $110,932.98 on bills. Five customers, who buy bulk water from the county department, owe $791.30, Ledford said.
“If people during the year question their bills we offer to give them a duplicate bill. We’ve tightened the rules for cutting off water or sewer service,” she said.
“The bulk of the people still owing money are rental property tenants. They leave the houses and don’t pay the bills. Landlords of these properties are obligated to pay the bills, but the tenants are often listed with us as the customer,” Meaney said.
Ledford said the county DES must certify the delinquent accounts to the county auditor’s office by the second Monday in September to be placed on the property tax duplicate. The county currently has 5,300 water user accounts and 3,000 sewer user accounts.
Meaney said that unlike private utility companies, the county can’t write off losses from delinquent customers failing to pay their utility bills.
“It would force us to raise rates for every customer,” he added.
Ledford said that the DES continues to accept payments up to Aug. 30 from delinquent customers before the list is certified to Corlett’s office. The cut-off date for compiling the list of the tardy bill paying customers is June 30.
Proposed House Bill 304 pending before the Ohio General Assembly relating to collections process changes, Meaney said, would greatly limit counties like Ashtabula to be able to certify delinquent utility accounts to a county auditor.
“In its present language, this bill would be an administrative nightmare for us,” he added.