(A) Rates or charges for water and sewer service shall be payable monthly.
(B) The owner of the premises shall make application to the city for service and be liable to pay for the service to such premises, and the service is furnished to the premises by the city only upon the condition that the owner of the premises shall be liable thereto to the city. In no circumstance shall anyone other than the owner of the premises make application for service or be furnished service by the city.
(C) No free utility service shall be furnished to any person, public or private, and all rates and charges shall be nondiscriminatory, provided that the Mayor and City Council reserve the right to impose special rates and charges in cases where particular circumstances render the regular rates inadequate or unjust.
(1) Bills for water/sewer service shall be sent out by the City Clerk or person under his or her direction on the first week of the billing cycle succeeding the period for which the service is billed.
(2) All water/sewer bills are due and payable by the last day of the billing month and shall be considered delinquent if not paid by that date. A penalty of 10% of the unpaid balance per month shall be added to all bills not paid by the last day of the billing month, except property that service has been turned off and a lien has been filed against the property owner.
(3) In every case where a meter fails to register the quantity of water used, the quantity shall be determined and a charge made based upon the quantity registered during the same period of the preceding calendar year, provided however, that the use of the property has substantially changed and it would be impractical or inequitable to base a current charge on the consumption from the same period of the preceding year, then the billing clerk shall be authorized to estimate the consumption for the period of time in question based on the consumption made by other comparable or similar users of the water service for that period of time.
(4) For each lot, parcel of land, building or premises having a connection with the wastewater system and being served with water solely by the water utility, the water utility water meter used upon the premises shall measure the quantity of wastewater for billing purposes.
(5) In the event that the owner or occupant of property receiving services in the city issues a check in payment for any water and/or sewage charges which are returned by a bank by reason of insufficient funds, a closed account, or any other reason except an error by the bank, a $25 service charge will be added to the account.
(Prior Code, § 18-1-1) (Ord. 2015-21, passed 11-9-2015; Ord. 2018-10, passed 11-14-2018)