(A) Customers will be billed a monthly minimum plus a charge for the amount of water metered over the allotted minimum, in accordance with the town’s fee schedule. This minimum charge shall be the based on the sum of the number of units on the premises. The minimum water usage allowed shall be that which would be equal to the number of units times the allotment for a three-fourths-inch meter. Sewer charges are based on 100% of the water usage and included in this monthly billing.
(B) Failure to receive bills or notices shall not prevent such bills from becoming delinquent or relieve the customer from payment.
(C) Water bills are mailed out near the twenty-fifth of each month, and a billing and past due date is clearly printed on the bill. Payment is due in full by the fifteenth day of the following month, or the first working day thereafter, or service shall be considered late on sixteenth, or the next business day after, and a 4% penalty shall be added to the customers account. Customers with a previous balance on their current water bill are subject to cut-off policy; and a cut-off fee as set forth in the town’s fee schedule shall be added to the account and the service will be disconnected. The Town Manager may authorize the removal of the penalty based on a case-by-case investigation.
(D) Service disconnected for non-payment of bills shall be restored only after all bills are paid in full. A service charge as set out in the town’s fee schedule shall become due immediately for each account disconnected. There shall be no services reconnected after normal business hours.
(E) Bills may be mailed in, paid in person at Town Hall during normal business hours or placed in the depository box next to the Town Hall front door after office hours. Utility bills may be drafted from the customer’s checking or savings account. The form is available at the Water Department. Customers may also pay their bills on line or by credit or debit card. Utilities Department technicians are not authorized to accept any payments.
(F) There shall be a service charge for returned or unpaid checks, or unpaid draft accounts, as set out in the town’s fee schedule. In the event of a returned or unpaid check, water service may be terminated until all bills and fees are paid in full. The town reserves the right to refuse further checks from a consumer that has had returned checks.
(G) Any account which appears on three consecutive monthly disconnect lists shall be discontinued, and the deposit applied to the bill. The same customer shall only re-open an account after a reconnection fee as set out in the town’s fee schedule, per account, is paid, along with all unpaid balances and a new deposit fee. Unpaid balances shall be turned over to the credit bureau or other collection agencies as determined by the Town Manager for collection.
(H) Sewer connections that have been plugged or severed due to delinquent accounts shall be unplugged or reconnected to the sewer system upon the payment of all outstanding sewer user bills and payment of a reconnection fee, as set out in the town’s fee schedule.
(I) Partial payments will be applied in the following order: penalties and fees, solid waste, sewer, and lastly water charges.
(Ord. passed 5-3-2011; Ord. passed 9-11-2014; Ord. 2023-03, passed 7-13-2023)