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Friday's Internet Edition, 9:11 AM, March 12, 2010.
Mt. Zion PSD ready to pursue past due bills
Publisher - Still struggling to get their own bills paid, the Mt. Zion Public Service District is preparing to go after customers with overdue water and sewer bills. The PSD has more than $82,000 in outstanding bills of its own, secretary Norma Collins told members Sharon Postalwait, Roscoe Gainer and Shirley Mace during their monthly meeting Monday at the Arnoldsburg Community Building.
Collins and Saundra Ballengee have been working to straighten out the PSD’s financial problems since the former secretary left last year.
Neither has been paid, nor have Tom Fluharty and “Dick” Ullum, the contractors keeping the water and sewer systems in operation.
Ballengee, who does the billing, said outstanding bills owned by water and sewer customers amount to more than $94,000, which includes over $44,000 in unpaid water bills and over $16,000 owed by sewer customers. She said there is another $30,000 in inactive accounts owed by past customers.
She said problems with the billing were finally starting to be worked out.
“There was a lot of stuff that was really messed up,” she said. “I’ve had more royal butt chewings than I can count.”
Gainer said some customers have not paid anything in over a year, including one who owes more than $3,000.
“These past due accounts are stealing from every person on the line,” he said.
Since problems with the billing were being ironed out, PSD members said they were now in a position to pursue past due amounts.
February bills are scheduled to go out this week, Ballengee said.
On a motion by Gainer, PSD members authorized Ballengee to send termination notices to customers more than 20 days past due. Those customers will be given 10 days before their service is cut off.
In other business, Collins reported a representative of the state Public Service Commission had visited to go over the PSD’s books.
“They seemed pleased with the progress we’ve made,” she said.
After losing its CPA for failing to pay the accounting firm’s bills, and having trouble finding another firm to take over, the PSD has finally found a firm to take on the job of completing an audit required to seek an emergency rate increase.
Collins said Griffith and Associates of Alum Creek had already started sending bills, even though no one from the firm had spoken with anyone on the PSD.
The PSD did take care of one expense Monday. By agreeing to pay about $400 in past due worker’s comp premiums, the PSD will avoid over $7,000 in penalties.
PSD members also heard from a representative of Miss Utility, who offered services in working with the PSD and those seeking to dig in the area where lines are buried.
Tom Taylor said the organization, which has 2-1/2 employees, would give a two-month free trial and then charge $10 a month for up to eight line location requests. The PSD would have two business days to locate lines for those who call.
The offer was approved unanimously.
The PSD also approved an engineer to help prepare specifications for a funding request for a proposed sewer system upgrade.
After interviewing representatives of three firms at a special meeting last month, PSD members decided Monday to seek a contract with Dunn Engineers of Charleston for the proposed project.
The PSD members learned a long-awaited $5.2 million water extension project remains on hold.
Fred Rader of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council said the USDA had not announced any decision regarding whether it would release funding for the extension.
The USDA refused to release the funding while lawsuits regarding the project were pending. PSD attorney Tom Whittier, not present for Monday’s meeting, said last month the PSD had been released, although project engineer Jim Hildreth remained a defendant in the claim filed by two contractors whose bids were rejected.
Whittier said then the successful bidders extended their bids through the end of March, and might be willing to extend them again.
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