The following shall be the policy pertaining to the administration of customer deposit accounts.
(A) Every person or business applying for utility service from the city shall place with the Utility Clerk a customer deposit to secure the payment of his or her utility bill. Utility deposits may not be transferred from one location to another and utility service will not be connected until deposit is paid. Each utility service, whether it be water, electric, or gas shall have a separate deposit as defined in division (B) below.
(B) The customer deposit for each utility shall be as follows:
Residential and Small Commercial | Large Commercial | |
Electrical service | $125 | $1,000 |
Gas service | $175 | $1,000 |
Water service | $50 | $100 |
(C) A customer deposit refund will be made when the customer requests a discontinuation of the service and all claims due the city have been paid. Any residential customer who owns and resides in the residence may request a refund of their customer deposit following two years continuous residency in the city, provided his or her utility bills is currently paid and he or she had a good payment record with the city at which time his or her deposit will be credited to his or her account. Any customer who owns real estate within and has been a resident for two years with a good payment record with the city will not be required to make customer deposit when applying for a new or additional utility service. Customer deposits held for businesses and non-property owners will not be refunded until all claims due the city are paid in full.
(D) Customer deposits shall be refunded, plus the amount of interest accrued less than 1% administrative costs.
(E) This section shall become effective upon passage and publication.
(Ord. 99-21, passed 9-14-1999)