WEEK REMAINS BEFORE WATER SYSTEM TRANSFER; CITY CONCENTRATES ON SERVICE WITH NEW UTILITY

Operation of the Cape Girardeau water system will be transferred from Union Electric Co. to the city next Wednesday. Voters approved the transfer last fall.

The biggest change for residents after June 3 likely will be in their monthly utility bill: City utility bills will be larger, which will correspond with smaller Union Electric bills as water charges are shifted.

Mid-Missouri Engineering Inc. (MMEI), the company that will run the city's water operation, will begin to read meters immediately, said City Manager J. Ronald Fischer.

"They'll start reading meters probably Wednesday of next week, and the first bills will be going out probably the middle of the month," he said.

Aside from a 3 percent rate increase, city officials said residents shouldn't notice any change in service. "If they do, hopefully, it's positive," said Fischer.

The city manager and MMEI Project Manager Tom Jones said now that transition work between UE and the city is nearly complete, customer service will be the new priority for the water system.

Fischer said the city will mail a letter explaining the changes to all affected residents prior to the final "switch-over."

"We have had a number of mailings go out already trying to explain this," he said. "We're going to be carrying customer service right on the top of the list as something we're going to strive for."

Starting next month, all city customer-service operations water, sewer and trash billing; city licenses; and taxi coupons will be on the first floor of City Hall, Fischer said.

Jones also stressed the importance of customer relations in a major transition like this.

"The one thing that goes noticed is customer service," he said. "Both entities are stressing public relations greatly, and we're even having some training sessions to deal with that."

Jones said MMEI is completely staffed with workers trained to operate the water system. He said employees also have had "hands-on" experience working on minor water-line replacements for some of the city's parks.

Also, water plant workers have been on the job for two to four weeks.

"They're going through training, getting familiar with the equipment and that sort of thing," he said. "I don't think that's going to be any huge problem.

"Most of the employees have a background in water and are licensed with the state in that area. Everything's on go."

MMEI hired 24 people to take care of plant operations, line maintenance and meter reading. A minor glitch in plans to purchase new vehicles for the meter readers won't delay the June 3 changeover, Jones said.

"It looks like delivery time for those vehicles is tight, and they may be a week late," he said. "We'll be supplementing other vehicles until they come in, so we won't have the prettiest trucks in the world for the first week or so."

Fischer also said all the billing changes have been worked out in the city's data processing department.

"I think everything is in order," he said. "We brought two additional clerks into data processing who will be working not only on the water billings but also the sewers and trash, which will all be on the same bill."

The city manager said data processing has done a number of "test runs" of the billing statements to insure that employees know how the process will work once it starts next month.

City utility bills will convert to "cycle billing," which will enable the city to bill a fourth of the residences for water, sewer and trash each week, rather than all the homes at once.

In addition to cycle billing, the city also will no longer bill sewer and trash in advance of service. Because residents will be charged for the amount of water they used the previous month, so also will the sewer and trash fees be "rear-billed."

Fischer said he's confident the water system purchase will be an asset for the city.

"I think what this is going to do is enhance our ability to extend services into areas that are not serviced now," he said.

During the past few years, new sewer lines have been extended into a number of undeveloped areas. Fischer said he doesn't expect those areas to remain undeveloped for long.

"When you've got sewers, you get development, which means you need water to those areas," he said. "We'll now be able to provide these services right along with everything else.

"It will also assist us in annexation and help us control development in areas."

The city manager said MMEI's operation of the water system also will enable the city to assess whether other city services might be "privatized."

"This is really a good test for us to see how some company can contract with the city to run a city service," he said. "At the same time, we know we're working with a company that has a good background."

In January, city officials hoped to complete the water-system transaction by May 1.

Cape Girardeau voters on Nov. 5 approved the city's purchase of the water system. Currently, Union Electric serves about 15,300 water customers in and near Cape Girardeau.