By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Don't call Mayor Bryce Lynn if you want compassion and
want to have your utilities turned on when they have been
shut-off.
"It puts the mayor in a bad spot," said Rory Nielsen,
council member. "We should not send people to talk to him.
We just need to stick with our policy."
The city policy is that when utilities are turned off,
the utility user needs to pay the bill. When the bill is
brought current, then the utilities will be turned on
again.
Often, said Lynn, he has been too compassionate. Those
who pay $100 and promise to bring the bill current have been
listened to by him. He has agreed to allow that
compromise.
However, it has not proved wise. He said he would no
longer make special arrangements because people just kept
getting in deeper and deeper.
"Perhaps it should be part of our policy to file a
lien (when the utility user gets two months behind in
payments)," said Gordon Anderson, council member.
"When someone looks at the title, the lien should come
up."
There is one problem which has surfaced, said Michelle
Dalton, city secretary. By the time one bill has been
received, it is nearly time for another. That occurs because
bills are sent out at the end of the month.
When natural gas begins to be used by consumers, she
said, the first bill, usually at the end of October, comes
out the first weeks of November. Then, when November's bill
comes out, if the first bill has not been paid, two big
bills will have stacked up.
It is all downhill from there.
It gets more and more difficult to pay the current
month and make up the past bill, she said, because the bills
are higher during winter.
"Any person over $200 by October 31 should get the
utilities turned off so that the bills do not get so high,"
said Dalton.
"That will not work, however, for those on equal pay,"
she said.
Equal pay utility consumers pay the same amount,
winter and summer, for the utilities so that the payments
even out during the year.
"The city should never have let a bill get so high
($1,400)," said Anderson.
From now on, agreed council members, those who are in
arrears on utility payments will be required to live by the
city policy. The utilities will be turned off after two
months of non-payment and the debt will be paid before the
utilities are turned back on.
Instead of being sent to the mayor to discuss
problems, the employees will just follow the policy.
If there are still problems to iron out, those persons
will need to meet with the council.
"That is the only fair way of dealing with everyone
the same," said Lynn.
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