(A) When connection involves only sewer service to a house or to a building, and even if more than 1 family or tenant is served by the sewer connection, the property owner shall be responsible for payment of all charges for sewer service upon the rates set forth in this chapter.
(B) Water/sewer bills are not pro-rated each month. For example: If a customer wants to terminate water service and not go into a new billing cycle, the customer must notify the town no later than the day of the month that water meters are read by town staff, usually on or about the 19th or 20th of each month.
(C) Water billed on each month’s invoice is not for water used from the first day of each month to the last day of each month.
(D) In order for the town to read, audit, verify, print and mail the water bills by the first day of each new month, the water meters must be read usually ten days prior to the first day of each month. The 10 days gives our administrative staff time to process all of the meter readings and calculate the billing amount for each customer.
(E) In reality, when a customer pays their water bill for a 30/31 day consumption period, they are paying for water that was used between the 19th or 20th of the prior month, through the 19th or 20th of the current month. Example: Customer gets their water bill in the mail on or near September 1. The charges on that bill are actually from July 20 through August 20.
(F) If a tenant leaves their rental property for example on the last day of any given month, a final water bill will still be owed by the tenant because a new metering/billing cycle began back on or about the 20th day of the prior month.
(G) When a tenant leaves at the end of a month, that means the tenant has already consumed water in a new billing period, usually about 10 days of consumption (19th or 20th day of current month to the last day of the same month when tenants usually leave the rental property).
(H) Since the town does not pro-rate water/sewer bills, the tenant even though they left the last day of the month, the tenant is still 10 days into a new billing cycle and therefor the final bill is due and payable at the then current minimum monthly billing rate.
(I) If water/sewer service is terminated because of non-payment, the security deposit will be applied to the amount owed to the town.
(J) The full amount of the initial deposit must be maintained by the account holder at all times.
(K) If the bill is not paid for any amounts up to, or in excess of the deposit amount, the water/sewer service will not be restored until the required deposit is fully restored and any other outstanding balance plus penalties plus interest plus the reconnect fee have been paid.
(L) All deposits are held from the date the account is activated, until the date the account is closed.
(M) When an active account is properly closed any remaining deposit after past due bills, final bills, and/or any other charges have been paid in full, will be returned to the customer in the form of a town issued check within 30 days of account closure.
(N) No interest is payable to account holders for required amounts held in deposit by the town.
(1997 Code, § 70-39) (Ord. passed 8-17-1993; Am. Ord. passed 10-1-2018)