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A. The procedure by which a customer may challenge the accuracy of a utility bill and the determination of the validity of the challenge shall be as follows:
1. The customer shall notify the town, in writing, of the challenge of the accuracy of the bill and the reasons for it. If the customer has received a notice of delinquency, the challenge shall be filed within ten days of the date of the notice of delinquency.
2. The customer may request that the water meter be re-read or tested, provided the customer pays the meter re-read charge or the meter test charge in advance in the amount established by a fee established by the schedule adopted by the council and amended from time to time. A request for meter re-read or meter test, paid for by the customer, shall constitute a challenge to the accuracy of the bill.
3. The town shall send the customer a corrected bill and refund the cost of the meter re-read or meter test if the bill is found to be in error either because the meter was misread or because a meter test shows that the meter over-calculated the volume by more than 3%. Customer shall have 20 days to pay the corrected bill.
4. The water director is authorized to negotiate a mediation process mutually acceptable to the water director and the customer. The customer shall deposit the full estimated cost of the mediation process with the water department. The mediation shall make a final determination of the validity of the customer’s challenge and whether the town should be required to pay all or a portion of the cost of the mediation process.
5. The customer’s utility service shall not be terminated during the mediation process.
Ordinance 2015.015 modified paragraph A 4 by changing “utilities director” to “water director” and “utilities department” to “water department”
A. Utility service may be terminated by the town without advance written notice under the following conditions:
1. Existence of an obvious hazard to the safety or health of the customer or the general population;
2. Evidence of water meter tampering or fraud;
3. Evidence of unauthorized resale of water or utility services;
4. A customer’s failure to comply with the curtailment procedures imposed by the council during water supply shortages.
A. Level of service. The town shall make reasonable efforts to provide quality, continuous service to its customers.
B. Non-liability. The town shall not be responsible for any damage attributable to any interruption or discontinuation of service resulting from any of the following:
1. Any cause against which the town could not have reasonably foreseen or made provision for, such as but not limited to any condition or event not reasonably within the control of the town, including without limitation, acts of public enemies, insurrection, civil disturbances, riots, epidemics, landslides, lightning, earthquakes, subsidence, fires, storms, droughts, and floods.
2. Intentional service interruptions to make repairs or perform routine maintenance.
3. Curtailment procedures imposed by the council during water supply shortages.
C. Service interruptions. The town shall make reasonable efforts to reestablish service within the shortest possible time when service interruptions occur.
1. If there is a national emergency or local disaster resulting in disruption of normal service, the town may, in the public interest, interrupt service to provide necessary service to civil defense, fire protection or other emergency service agencies on a temporary basis until normal service can be restored.
2. When the town plans to interrupt service for more than four hours to perform necessary repairs or maintenance, the town shall attempt to inform affected customers at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled day and the estimated duration of the service interruption.
3. Notice to customers shall not be required if there is an emergency or an outage due to unanticipated events or causes.
D. Minimum water delivery pressure. The town shall maintain a minimum standard water delivery pressure of 20 pounds per square inch at the customer’s meter or point of delivery, except during water outages.
E. Construction standards. The town shall construct all facilities in accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.
A. Each customer’s water meter shall be read monthly on as close to the same day as practical.
B. All utility service provided by the water department shall be billed:
1. On the basis of metered water volume, or
2. Based on historic usage when a meter has malfunctioned or cannot be read for reasons beyond the town’s control. Each bill based on estimated usage will indicate that it is an estimated bill.
Ordinance 2015.015 modified paragraph B by changing “utilities department” to “water department”
A. Minimum bill information. Each bill for utility service will contain the following minimum information:
1. Bill date.
2. Date and meter reading at the start of the billing period.
3. Previous month’s meter reading.
4. Water volume used during the billing period.
5. Utility department’s email address and telephone number.
6. Customer’s name and address.
7. Service account number and service address.
8. Amount due and due date.
9. Past due amount.
10. Other applicable charges and taxes.