County officials will start an aggressive push to collect delinquent Union-Rome Sewer District bills using every means available, including legal remedies, commissioners said Thursday.

Friday, April 07, 2000

County officials will start an aggressive push to collect delinquent Union-Rome Sewer District bills using every means available, including legal remedies, commissioners said Thursday.

The county might also consider increasing penalties, charging late fees or look for help in an outside sewer system manager.

"This commission is very serious about delinquent sewer bills," commission president Bruce Trent said, explaining that the financial stability of the sewer system depends on it.

The district has used more and more carryover money each year to prop up its $1.6 million budget. And the carryover this year might not be enough to see the district through, Trent said.

Commissioner Paul Herrell said county prosecutors have been given permission to pursue collections of past due bills – currently totaling more than $100,000.

"We’re going to collect," Herrell said. "It has to be collected."

Trent agreed, adding that legal action might be necessary, although he would not say if lawsuits will be filed.

"You can expect property tax bills to list what you owe the sewer company," he said.

Such threatened action comes after months of meetings by a sewer advisory board that has been looking into the delinquency problem.

"The Union-Rome sewer system is hemorrhaging," Trent said.

About 40 percent of the customers are delinquent every month, he said.

"We will collect past due bills and enforce future collections to the highest degree the law allows," he said. "We owe it to system users who are paying customers."

Commissioner George Patterson agreed that the commission needs to deal strongly with delinquent customers. "I think it’s necessary that people who are delinquent come up to par so it doesn’t put additional burden on users," Patterson said.

The commission will weigh all its options and look for ways to make those collections, he said.

Any solution is up to the collectors, the county commission in this case, county auditor Ray Dutey said.

The commission met Thursday with representatives of the auditor’s office, treasurer’s office, sewer company and prosecutor’s office.

Several have been put on property tax rolls but when those taxes remain delinquent, so do the sewer bills, Dutey said.

The auditor also favors prosecution of delinquent customers, he said.

The county is facing difficulties in collecting through the property tax process, though, commissioners said.

One court case stymied a sewer bill collection when the judge allowed the landowner to pay only the property tax portion of his bill, a decision the county plans to appeal, they said.

Some sewer district users have been worried that inaction on delinquent sewer accounts might result in rate increases one day, although the county has not mentioned such a change.

"There would not even have to be talk of a raise if we collect what is owed to us each month and what’s in arrears," Trent said.

"There are nearly 4,000 customers on this system and we’re going to bat for them," he said.

Other options commissioners might consider, which would add more force to collections, include requiring customers to reimburse the county for its legal expenses and cutting the time it takes to be considered delinquent back to 30 days, Trent said.

Also, Ohio-American Water Co. has considered taking over the management of the system as a business investment.

The county has not yet received such a proposal.