Town Forgoes Sewer Liens In Confusion Over Billing

By Andrew Gorosko

In the face of a fast-approaching filing deadline, the town has dropped its plans to file liens on delinquent sewer usage bills.

At a June 22 meeting of the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), Public Works Director Fred Hurley told WPCA members that there were then 158 overdue accounts in which sewer users owed the town money for wastewater disposal. Mr Hurley then told WPCA members the town planned to issue liens on those accounts. Through such liens, the town places a legal claim on the property of sewer users with delinquent bills as security for the payment of the overdue bills. The delinquent bills totaled about $40,000, Mr Hurley said.

About 20 bills represented the bulk of the $40,000, he said. The vast majority of delinquent bills are less than $100, he added. The delinquent accounts represent a broad range of overdue bills, extending from several dollars to several thousand dollars, he said. “There’s no typical bill,” he said.

However, due to difficulties encountered in reaching sewer users with delinquent bills to inform them that liens would be placed on their properties unless the bills are paid quickly, the town has decided against placing those liens, Mr Hurley said June 27.

US Filter, a private wastewater treatment firm, operates the town’s sewage treatment plant on a contract basis. US Filter’s billing subcontractor, which has been running the town’s sewer usage billing operation, should have begun seeking out sewer users with delinquent bills much sooner to reach all of them before the June 30 deadline for placing liens on properties, Mr Hurley said.

Mr Hurley said June 27 that there were then about 80 remaining delinquent sewage usage accounts. Many people with delinquent accounts paid their bills at the sewage treatment plant on Commerce Road after having been notified by telephone by the sewer billing firm of the lien process, Mr Hurley said.

The deadline for placing the liens had grown so close, the billing firm had to resort to making telephone calls to prompt sewer users to pay their back bills to prevent having liens placed on their properties.

Delinquent accounts will have liens placed on them at the end of the next fiscal year, Mr Hurley said.

 “There was a whole range of reactions,” Mr Hurley said of sewer users’ responses to being contacted by telephone to be informed of the lien process.

“The timing was bad,” Mr Hurley said. “There’s just not enough time to get everyone informed,” he said. Notifying sewer users of the placement of liens should have started two months ago, not last week, he said.

The town is unhappy with the sewer billing firm’s performance, he said, noting that past sewer bills have been confusing to sewer users. Besides the confusing bills, the town encountered various other problems with the billing process, he said.

 “You must be timely and consistent in dealing with the public,” Mr Hurley said, noting that recent sewer billing has not met those standards. The sewer billing process must be improved, he said.

“This will not happen again next year,” he said.

 “The bill has to be ready on time. That’s the bottom line,” he added.