
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995                   TAG: 9503290096
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE COUNTY GOES TO MONTHLY WATER BILLS

Roanoke County utility customers can look forward to another eight bills in the mail each year. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved switching to monthly billing as a convenience to residents using public water and sewer.

The new billing system, to begin in July, also should cut down on bad debt by allowing the county to cut off service to delinquent customers 30 days sooner than it can now.

The move will let utility customers pay their county bills the same way they pay other utilities, eliminating the large quarterly payment. Meters still will be read quarterly, and for two months of each quarter, bills will be estimates based on the previous reading. The third bill will be for the actual reading, less what a customer has paid in the previous two months.

If the county had used the system during the past fiscal year, it would have saved $6,400 in bad debt, assistant finance director Paul Grice told supervisors. The new system will cost the county $32,000 next year in increased postage and forms, however.

The new system also will eliminate the county's minimum charge for use, so some small users' bills may be reduced.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB