Published: December 20, 2008 10:10 pm      

Residents question sewer bills

Sanitary district fields calls over Feb. change

DANVILLE — City and Danville Sanitary District officials have been fielding phone calls, including from some residents who want to appeal their new sewer/garbage fixed billing amount. Sample bill letters went out recently about the new billing system.

The sanitary district is taking over the billing from Aqua Illinois. Bills will go out under the new system the second week of February.

Aldermen in August approved a five-year, $200,000-a-year contract starting Jan. 1 with the sanitary district to provide billing for city sanitary sewer and garbage charges.

The sanitary district is responsible for collection of bills for the first 90 days. Unpaid bills would transfer to the city’s legal department for collection.

Residential customers will see a flat rate for sewer bills, as they now see for garbage.

It would have been cost-prohibitive if the city continued to use formula-based billing for all 11,000 residential accounts because of Aqua’s proposed $1 per read meter-reading fee.

Residents’ city sewer rate ranges from $9 to $30 depending on water usage. The city looked at previous usage, including 2006 bills, to determine the city sewer cost.

The current monthly garbage fee is $17.50. It will increase to $18 in May.

The bills also will include sanitary district treatment and base charge fees of $6.70 and $1.05, respectively. Normally, residents received a separate quarterly postcard bill from the district for these fees, unless paying annually.

But the charges now will be included in the monthly bill.

Due to the need for 12 bills a year and mailing costs for each customer instead of four annual postcard bills, the added bill-ing charge to residents will be $6.80 for the year, said Shelly Cumbow, assistant director for administrative services with the Danville Sanitary District.

Residents, however, can save about $20 for the year if paying the bills by direct checking account payments or paying for a year’s worth of bills at once, she said.

Also, the monthly bills include a $20-plus late fee.

There is a $10 late fee for each of the city sewer and garbage charges and a 10 percent late fee on the sanitary district charges, Cumbow explained.

The district also can shut off water for non-payment.

Ward 5 Alderman Jerry Askren said by having a high late fee, the bill will move up higher on residents’ priority lists to pay first.

He said another plus is if a resident increases his water usage, the bill won’t go up.

Cumbow said it was in the plan all along to include all three sets of charges on one bill.

Residents who have paid ahead for their sanitary district fees will see a credit on their bills starting in February.

“There will be no more post cards,” Cumbow said, but added that some residents will receive a final one in January for charges through December.

Also, there will be no sanitary district rate increase this year. The last increase was in 2005, she said.

Public Works Director Doug Ahrens has said benefits of the new billing system include: a home owner will know the set monthly fees, the cost to maintain the service will be paid by everyone now even if a unit is vacant and there will be more local billing options.

But landlord Terry Moreman doesn’t think it is right and wonders if it is legal for the city to still bill vacant units.

Cumbow said a benefit to them is not having to deal with multiple parties, such as tenants and landlords, to resolve bill-ing issues.

“Now, we’ll go straight to the owner,” she said.

Cumbow said since the sample bills went out, they’ve had to make some corrections with name changes and some residents who should not be charged for garbage due to having a private hauler.

There are 10,800 residents receiving the new flat rate billing.

Commercial customers didn’t receive a new sample bill because their sewer charge will still be based on usage. Residential and commercial customers total 11,900.

“It won’t be perfect,” Cumbow said of the new billing.

But she said they are hoping for as few mistakes as possible and to get anything corrected quickly.

The city terminated its garbage and sewer billing contract with Aqua Illinois, which started in 2006, after problems began when the water company switched to new billing software and bill payments weren’t received locally anymore.

Bills were late and incorrect. The city also had trouble with Aqua not providing financial reports and funding in a timely manner.

The current annual cost for the billing system, assuming 100 percent sewer collection, is $287,000. Proposed costs for the city to take over the billing were $100,000 in startup and $250,000 in annual costs.