MOUNT VERNON – A West Burgess Street resident had a $2,200 water bill forgiven by the Mount Vernon Utilities Commission after learning that her water meter had failed to report how much water was being used for 18 months.
Melissa Harding told the Utilities Commission during its meeting on Thursday that the Water Department came out to her house on Aug. 23 with a high usage warning. It was only then that she discovered a major leak in her toilet. She fixed the leak with a $20 replacement part but received a bill for $2,200 for just August’s water usage.
“There is no way anybody in their right mind can afford that in this economy. I mean, I’m barely scraping by at best to survive,” she said.
Brad Cook, the Utilities assistant director for billing, said that a review of water bills that showed only usage estimates were available for billing led them to discover that the transmitter on the water meter that sends usage information to billing software had not been working for 18 months. Upon its repair, staff immediately discovered the high water usage.
He said the water bill was only for one month as the previous 18 months were credited because of the meter issues. For each of those months, the base rate of 400 cubic feet was paid.
A new staff member at The Order of the Eastern Star was not familiar with bill payment deadlines so the organization was fined a little more than $1,000 in penalties due to late payments on its four accounts. The two accounts that were under $500 in penalties were waived by the Billing Department, but the larger amount had to come before the Utilities Commission.
The late fees were waived by the Utilities Commission.
Joint city-county project on Fairgrounds Road seeks funding
A proposal to seek $600,000 from the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC) for water and sewer line replacements along Fairgrounds Road in a joint project with Knox County was referred to the Mount Vernon City Council for approval.
The project is part of what City Engineer Brian Ball said they have been calling the Clintonville project.
“Part of this flows to the Clinton Road lift station, which is a subject of an EPA directive to stop putting stormwater, rainwater and groundwater into the pump station and causing it to overflow into the Kokosing River,” he said.
Any fire hydrant that’s fully opened north of Fairgrounds Road will shut off the water system and start draining water out of people’s water heaters, he said. He said they’ve discussed using a restrictor valve to prevent this.
“It also has a pretty good chance of breaking the water line,” he said.
The preferred alternative would be to run a water line from the east entrance of the fairgrounds to Clinton Road.
Knox County asked the city to extend sanitary sewer service as several homes on the south side of Fairgrounds Road are on lots too small for septic tanks, he said. The county also plans stormwater improvements and to pave the road when the utilities work is completed.
Staff is proposing to the Utilities Commission and City Council a joint $3 million project with Knox County, and possibly Clinton Township, he said. The first step would be to apply for $600,000 in funding from the OPWC. The county has supplied $750,000. And the city has asked the state for American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The project would be done in phases.
“The other thing we consider being a local government is that if we did it all at one point, there wouldn’t be any roads to drive on. So we have been phasing it to also consider people getting to work and getting home,” Ball said.
The Utilities Commission also approved asking the contractor for a project to replace two culverts that cross Mansfield Avenue immediately south of Fairgrounds Road to include replacing the water line from the fairgrounds to Grange in the project phase that starts this fall.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted the outstanding bill was $22,000. The actual amount is $2,200. Also, the client paid a base rate of 400 cubic feet, not $400.
