Wednesday, March 7, 2001
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Wednesday, March 7, 2001 |
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County helps family with $1,038 bill for water, sewer By DAVE HAMRICK A water bill of $100 for a single family home would be considered pretty high, so how about more than $1,000. That's what Glenn Rickerson got in the mail recently, a combined water/sewer bill for $1,038, showing that 222,000 gallons of water had passed through his meter. His normal bill runs between $30 and $40. The sewer bill, which is based on the water usage, accounted for $406 of the total. Rickerson was in luck. The Fayette County Water System has a special fund set aside for unusual cases like his. Using a predetermined formula, the system pays up to several hundred dollars when water usage for a given customer shoots way out of sight. In Rickerson's case, the formula left him paying only $137. He attended a recent meeting of the county Water Committee to ask for still more consideration. "I'm hoping for a further compromise between the $137 and my [normal usage]," he told the committee. But committee members decided to stick with the formula. "The only thing we can do is ... make sure the meter is correct," said committee Chairman Chuck Watkins. "Everybody is comfortable we did all we can." As to why the unusual bill occurred, that's anybody's guess, said system director Tony Parrott. "I honestly don't know what happened," he said. Mysteriously, Rickerson's bill went back to normal the next month with no action by the Water System, he said. Thus far in 2001, the system has dipped into its special fund ten times, forgiving anywhere from $178 to $500 of customers' bills, according to records. In some cases, customers were still left paying several hundred dollars, he said. "We're trying to handle all of them equally," he said. The Board of Commissioners approved establishment of the fund in 1999, an unusual move, Parrott said. "There are a lot of places that don't have a water adjustment fund and the people just have to pay it," he said. "It's part of an effort to be more customer-friendly," he said.
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