Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508280147
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Phased in over the summer, the three-cycle billing plan replaced a system where the city sent all bills out just once a month and where customers sometimes could owe for up to three months of service before cutoff. Now, because one-third of the bills are sent out at a time, customers face new and different deadlines.
Radford has 7,000 or so utility customers, and many who are used to not paying their power bills until the city's second notice arrived have found their power cut off for nonpayment. The city no longer sends second notices and has been cutting off power sooner after the deadline.
Despite a warning on bills that utility service is "subject to disconnect without further notice," some customers still ran afoul of the new system.
City Finance Director Jess Cantline said customers "either were waiting to get the delinquent notice or were used to paying [their bills] at a certain time" each month.
After two months of leniency, during which no one was cut off, the city in August began enforcing the system with its tougher, tighter due dates and cut-off dates.
Since July, the lights have gone out for more than 90 customers who didn't pay their bills on time. More than 330 others were subject to cut-off over the span of the last three billing cycles, said Jim Richardson, assistant finance director. They either paid their bills at the last minute or the city didn't have time to disconnect them. Cut-off customers must pay an average $2 penalty, plus $25 to be reconnected.
Richardson and Cantline were reluctant to compare cut-off numbers between the old and new systems, but in April, 24 utility deadbeats of 179 on the list were cut off, while in May, 54 of 117 delinquents were disconnected.
In the Municipal Building, those in the front lines of collecting customers' money - and of hearing their complaints - say the new three-cycle billing plan has made things a lot busier at the payment window.
"Complaints are sky high. Everybody's complaining about it," said City Treasurer Martin "Jigger" Roberts, who contends his office is not set up to handle "all the problems cycle billing has caused."
Roberts said he's had a four-employee staff since 1973 and that's no longer enough to handle the flow. "It's almost constant at the window," he said.
So far, his office has done "the best we could to make the system work."
However, Cantline and Richardson report complaints are "no more than usual" and believe they've seen the worst of it now, especially since upwards of 500 returning Radford University students have filed through their office to sign utility contracts, another new wrinkle the city instituted.
"Up until today, people have just been standing in line to sign up," Richardson said Thursday.
Cantline said the city doesn't lack a heart. "We want to be understanding and if there's a real problem paying, we want to work with them,"
He said the city "obviously can't let them not pay the bill," but "we're trying to be as compassionate as we can."
He said customers he's spoken with are "willing to adjust" to the new system.
Roberts said the system has caused problems for people on fixed incomes who get government checks early in the month, since they could find themselves cut off before their next check arrives.
"People still aren't used to the change," he said.
The burgeoning cut-off list has caused problems of its own for the city. "Frankly, they don't have time to do the cut-offs," Roberts said.
Roberts, Cantline and Richardson agree the situation will improve.
Roberts' advice is to be sure you read your bill for dates, "because they have changed," he said.
Cantline concurred. "Read the bill and make sure you understand what date it's going to be cut off," he said.
by CNB