Price city implements utilities disconnect policy

By Sun Advocate

Price officials have changed the city’s utilities disconnect policy.
Discussing the new policy, Mayor Joe Piccolo assured Price residents that, if local consumers should encounter financial problems, city government is willing to work with the individuals to resolve the situations.
“We can work with residents on alternative sources or payments that are available, such as heat programs,” indicated the Price mayor.
“The last thing we want to do is to create more problems for our citizens,” added Piccolo.
At the last city council meeting, the new disconnect policy was outlined by a committee.
The guidelines recently adopted by city officials include:
•The first billing cycle will be moved from the 15th of the month to the 20th.
The due date for the first billing cycle has been extended from 10 to 15 days for customers who are on a fixed income and receive checks or money at the first of the month.
•The second billing cycle will continue to be billed on the last working day of the month.
The due date for the second billing cycle will also be extended five days, also giving the customers 15 days to pay.
The Price city mayor and council members wanted to find a way to help the community members stay current on payments for utilities.
In order to achieve the objective, the officials formed a committee to review the city’s existing utilities disconnect policy.
The committee membership consisted of the mayor, Price council members, utility department personnel, the city attorney and the municipality’s community director.
When the old utilities policy was still in place, Price city utility customers were disconnected for nonpayment, making it more difficult for the services to be restored.
The customers would owe two months of bills before the utilities would be shut off. And a third utility bill was on its way to the residents.
According to the mayor, here will no longer be a 48-hour “door-hanging” second notice to remind customers to pay delinquent utility bills.
“It was really hard for most of the customers to pay to get their services turned back on, once their services were disconnected,” pointed out Piccolo.
But with the new policy in place, the customer will have to pay as much to get service turned back on if disconnected for nonpayment.
City officials are also encouraging customers to take advantage of the direct pay program, which comes out of checking or savings accounts automatically.
People who need to discuss problems with officials should contact Heather Wichmann at 637-3197 to make arrangements.
“Our goal is for Price city residents to benefit from the services we provide. This will help decrease Price city’s debts that are not collectible which, in turn, will help provide necessary services for Price city residents,” concluded Piccolo.