ADEL UTILITY BILL UPDATE: Customers need to pay their bill within 30 days; City Council asked to consider penalties and reconnection fees on future billings.

During the Monday, June 6, 2022, Adel City Council meeting, City Manager John Flythe said another utility billing had been issued this past week.  

City officials are hoping to get another utility billing out within the next two to three weeks.  

Flythe asked the City Council to think about the handling of penalties and reconnection fees on future billings. He said customers need to pay their bill within 30 days. After that, work out a payment arrangement on the balance, he said. He did not think the City wanted to impose any interest.  

Flythe also reminded the Council that the City has a number of people in transition, meaning they have moved into a residence, stay a short time, and then move out of the community. He did note that the City has Social Security numbers, etc., on those individuals, “so hopefully we will be able to collect on any such accounts left.”

“When we get to the issuance of more than one billing within a 30-day period, we need to come up with a payment plan,” Flythe added.

Mayor Buddy Duke said the City Council needs to think about it and possibly have a work session. “The bottom line is the City is sending out bills that need to be paid, but customers have got to show good faith effort in making payments,” Duke said.

Flythe added that the City is able to download and store meter readings, so the information is there and recorded. “The data is good; we may have had issues with the program itself, but the data is available,” he said.

Councilman Walter Cowart asked if there had been any problems with that side, to which Flythe replied, “No, not outside of regular maintenance.” 

Flythe said, “We have had problems getting new meters, so we may have to make a change at some point in the future with that side.”  

Mayor Duke asked the Council Members to be thinking about a payment policy for customers.