Winder’s utility customers sometime in the not-so-distant future should get monthly bills that more fully explain what the city charges for natural gas and water services.
Alex Wages, the city’s information technology director, told the Winder City Council and some local customers Monday night that programmers are working on the billing software to support the more detailed bills. Wages said the more detailed bills would be put in place about 30 days after the city’s software contractor, Incode, completes the programming needed to support the changes.
The programmers haven’t provided a project completion date, making it impossible to estimate when the new bills will be ready for use, he said.
Utility bills could see changes soon
RETIREE SPARKS CHANGE TO BILL FORMAT
Currently, the city’s bills show one charge each for natural gas, water, sewer and garbage services; the service period’s dates; a tax; and simple bar graphs indicating the ups and downs of a customer’s monthly water and gas usage over the previous year.
The city’s decision to disclose significantly more detail than that is due in large part to the civic activism of a retired Winder schoolteacher named Kay Pierce, who last March began insisting that city officials explain its natural gas charges. She told the council at that time that she couldn’t find anyone at city hall who could answer her questions, and she complained about the limited amount of information disclosed on bills.
City administrator Bob Beck at the time promised more detailed bills, and Pierce looked for them every month and was disappointed.
So when unusually high February gas bills sparked a new round of questions and complaints from her neighbors and other local residents, Pierce went back to the council Monday night.
She sat in the audience and listened as the elected officials and staff discussed the issue.
Bob Dixon, the council’s newest member, said the city should have provided along with the February bills a written explanation for why they were high.
He said he read that this winter is the coldest one in this area since 1925, and he said he also learned that the billing cycle had been extended by up to 10 days because of a staffing shortage created, in part, by the January death of a meter reader.
“I got numerous calls from citizens complaining about the cost of gas, because they didn’t understand,” Dixon said.
He added: “I didn’t see anywhere where we as a city tried to explain that to our citizens.”
City administrator Bob Beck said the promised changes to the bills have not occurred because an initial attempt last fall appeared likely to raise more questions than answers.
Eventually, he said, the utility bills also will include each customer’s election ward, the names and contact information of his councilmen, and other messages — such as announcements of upcoming meetings or events. Beck also noted that once customers get the new bills, they would be able to compare the per-therm natural gas rate they are paying for Winder’s service to the rates charged by other natural gas marketers. The “price card” that lists other marketers’ prices is on the Georgia Public Service Commission’s web site at www.psc.state.ga.us.
Draft copies of the proposed billing changes were provided to the council at the meeting but were not provided to the audience.
However, finance director Leslie Henderson took a draft copy to Pierce and showed her the proposed changes.
Satisfied that she would be able to understand the new format, Pierce left the meeting after the discussion of the issue.
On Tuesday, she said city officials could have spared themselves a lot of calls over the past couple of weeks if they had done as Dixon suggested and included with the February bills an explanation.
“If they had explained that it was for an extended time and that they would work with people who couldn’t pay the entire bill all at once, I don’t think they would have had as many citizen calls,” she said.
Currently, the city’s bills show one charge each for natural gas, water, sewer and garbage services; the service period’s dates; a tax; and simple bar graphs indicating the ups and downs of a customer’s monthly water and gas usage over the previous year.
The city’s decision to disclose significantly more detail than that is due in large part to the civic activism of a retired Winder schoolteacher named Kay Pierce, who last March began insisting that city officials explain its natural gas charges. She told the council at that time that she couldn’t find anyone at city hall who could answer her questions, and she complained about the limited amount of information disclosed on bills.
City administrator Bob Beck at the time promised more detailed bills, and Pierce looked for them every month and was disappointed.
So when unusually high February gas bills sparked a new round of questions and complaints from her neighbors and other local residents, Pierce went back to the council Monday night.
She sat in the audience and listened as the elected officials and staff discussed the issue.
Bob Dixon, the council’s newest member, said the city should have provided along with the February bills a written explanation for why they were high.
He said he read that this winter is the coldest one in this area since 1925, and he said he also learned that the billing cycle had been extended by up to 10 days because of a staffing shortage created, in part, by the January death of a meter reader.
“I got numerous calls from citizens complaining about the cost of gas, because they didn’t understand,” Dixon said.
He added: “I didn’t see anywhere where we as a city tried to explain that to our citizens.”
City administrator Bob Beck said the promised changes to the bills have not occurred because an initial attempt last fall appeared likely to raise more questions than answers.
Eventually, he said, the utility bills also will include each customer’s election ward, the names and contact information of his councilmen, and other messages — such as announcements of upcoming meetings or events. Beck also noted that once customers get the new bills, they would be able to compare the per-therm natural gas rate they are paying for Winder’s service to the rates charged by other natural gas marketers. The “price card” that lists other marketers’ prices is on the Georgia Public Service Commission’s web site at www.psc.state.ga.us.
Draft copies of the proposed billing changes were provided to the council at the meeting but were not provided to the audience.
However, finance director Leslie Henderson took a draft copy to Pierce and showed her the proposed changes.
Satisfied that she would be able to understand the new format, Pierce left the meeting after the discussion of the issue.
On Tuesday, she said city officials could have spared themselves a lot of calls over the past couple of weeks if they had done as Dixon suggested and included with the February bills an explanation.
“If they had explained that it was for an extended time and that they would work with people who couldn’t pay the entire bill all at once, I don’t think they would have had as many citizen calls,” she said.
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
