Public Notice click on links below…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: August 11, 2023
TOPIC: Van Wert August Water Bills
For many years, water meters have been read quarterly. Charges were calculated on a quarterly minimum usage, as well as a tiered system for additional usage. Customers paid two monthly estimates, and then a “catch-up” bill based on an actual meter reading covering a period of approximately 90 days.
In anticipation of new meters that would be read monthly, City Council approved changing to a monthly billing system. Essentially, this simply meant dividing the quarterly numbers by three in order to make them monthly numbers.
As new meters were installed, this was the intended procedure:
Step 1) Customer receives a new meter
Step 2) Meter is read and bill is calculated using the quarterly system for the last time
Step 3) Going forward, customer’s meter would be read monthly and billed using the monthly system
Instead, after Step 1 when the new meter was installed, the software incorrectly switched to the monthly system in Step 2. This resulted in an overcalculation for some of those households.
What happens next
For approximately 1700 households, their August water bill will be recalculated properly using the quarterly system. Some will receive a credit on their September bill, and they will begin to have their meter read monthly.
The rest of the city (approximately 3000 households) will also have their August bill recalculated, since their estimate may have been inappropriate. They will receive another estimated bill in September, followed by their “catch-up” bill in October.
Unless there is an unforeseen delay, the meter installation and the last quarterly billing period will be completed with the October bill.
The entire city will then be on monthly readings beginning with the November bill.
We are sorry this happened, but we would like to thank everyone for their patience during this transition period.