Council considers veteran’s request
By Dean Shipley
Staff Writer
George Cabeen doesn’t want his water shut off. He expressed that fear Monday evening in the brief meeting of the Mt. Sterling Council.
Cabeen, a veteran with a disability, is in apparent jeopardy of having his water shut off because the balance on his bill is $150. He said his limited income has prevented him from paying down the balance. When a water bill in Mt. Sterling reaches a balance of $150, and is not paid in full by the 15th of the month, water service is shut off the following day.
“It doesn’t give people time to catch up,” Cabeen said. “Can it be put off to the new year?”
Cabeen said there may have been a notice “I may have missed.”
Village administrator Joe Johnson said the ruling was asked for at the first of the year. It followed proper legislative protocol and a notice was printed on customers’ water bills.
Council member Lowell Anderson said it had to be enacted because residents were apparently “taking advantage of it.” Water bills would be run up, then the customer would move out, leaving the landlord stuck for the bill.
“We’ll take it under advisement,” Mayor Charlie Neff told Cabeen.
In other business, village administrator Johnson said the plans for the repair of the intersection of state Route 62 and Schadel Lane have been approved by ODOT and the repair will move forward this fall.
Johnson said the bid opening for work on the sewer plant will be held at 3 p.m., Oct. 22.
The council approved paying bills on two warrant lists: the first, of $9,428; and the second of $60,065.
This water billing is not going to work. If someone gets a bill for , lets say $38.28 and sends a check in for $38.26 by mistake, there water will be turned off for 2 cents and they will be charged to have it turned back on. Another problem is that the bills are not consistent, it’s like the meter only gets read once every 3 months os some people might get hit with an extremely high bill where the meter was read and the village is playing catch up, not very freindly to the people of the village. They say they put this in effect for people that are renters so that the landlords don’t get stuck witha bill when their renters leave. Maybe the landlords should get the bill monthly and add it to the rent. This would make more sense then pentalizing those that don’t rent. Why is the Village so concerned about the owners of the rentals properties? That’s right it’s the GOOD OL BOY network.