NEW WATER CUT-OFF POLICY TO GET REVIEW

The city of Cape Girardeau cut off service to a southside church over a $11.35 water bill.

City Councilman Richard Eggimann said the church is one of several instances where customers have had their water cut off.

"These are horror stories to me," said Eggimann, who has asked the city staff to review the city's water-cutoff policy.

"There must be something wrong having so many people's water cut off," he said.

Councilman Melvin Gateley echoed Eggimann's concerns. He said the city needs to apply common sense to its billing practices and help customers who are making a good-faith effort to pay their bills.

"Cutting water off in hot months or cold months, that ought to be a last resort," Gateley said.

The city turned off the water to the Cape Family Worship Center at 800 S. Sprigg on Nov. 29.

Glynn Robison, pastor, said the city never notified the church that it was cutting off the water.

"We came in for service on Wednesday evening and everything was off," Robison said.

The city says it did notify the church by mail.

Robison said the church regularly pays its bills. "We never had a problem with this before." He contends the church's treasurer paid the bill weeks ago and now has had to pay the bill again, plus another $30 in disconnection and reconnection charges.

But Mary Thompson, city collector, said the latest delinquent notice was the fourth one sent to the church over the past 16 months.

She said the city mailed the disconnect warning to the church on Nov. 17, 12 days before the water was turned off.

Cape Girardeau's water system changed its way of doing business in April. It reduced from 40 days to 12 days the amount of time customers had to pay delinquent bills before service could be cut off.

Union Electric had a more liberal cutoff policy when it operated the water system.

After the city bought the water system in June 1992, it hired Alliance Water Resources to manage the system.

The city allowed customers 40 days after their water bills were delinquent to pay up. The fact the previous bill was past due was noted on the current bill.

But this spring, the city moved to cut off water service more quickly on delinquent accounts.

The city notifies customers by mail that their water will be cut off if they don't pay their bills. But it has eliminated the previous practice of also hanging a red warning tag on customers' doors.

"There is nothing unreasonable here," said Tom Taggart, water system manager.

He said some customers just don't tell the truth. They report they never received the bill or disconnect notice when in fact they did.

Taggart said the city wants people to pay their bills on time. He said it's redundant and costly for the city to put 1,200 to 1,500 disconnect-notice tags on customers' doors.

"How much of this bad faith, non-payment do you chase with additional money?," he said. "Is that fiscally responsible?"

A less diligent policy on delinquent bills would make for a less-efficient water system. The higher costs would be shifted to those customers who pay their bills on time, Taggart said.

Only a small percentage of water customers have their water shut off, he said. In April, 2,794 customers received delinquent notices, but water was cut off to only 276. Another 109 would have been, but their meters weren't accessible.