By James B. Bartle
The Sullivan City Council gave unanimous approval on Tuesday night, June 15, to allowing a new budget billing program for utility customers.
Ordinance 3409, sponsored by Alderman Dennis Watz and presented by the Utility Ad Hoc Committee, will allow the new program to begin in August.
Those residents interested in participating in a budget billing program must fill out an application and follow the following guidelines: must be a resident in the same home for 12 months; be current on utility bills; agree to pay the full budget billing amount each and every month; agree that, if they are disconnected for nonpayment, they will not be eligible for the program anymore; agree that, after three delinquent payments in a 12-month time frame, they will not be allowed to be in the program; if the account has a credit balance, it will be applied to the next bill; if the customer or city cancels the program, the customer’s next month’s bill will reflect any final adjustments; and if the customer has a utility bill that is manually billed with a water deduct meter, they will be ineligible for the program.
Sullivan Utility Department reports that there are about 40 customers whose bills are processed manually due to the water deduct meters. These accounts cannot be handled with the budget billing computer billing program; thus, making them ineligible.
The program will kick off on Aug. 1 and applications for the program are available at Sullivan City Hall.