Jefferson City officials will be making a change to its water bill collection policy.

Currently, if a resident misses the due date to pay their water bill, the City will send out a delinquent notice and allow a 12 day grace period for the bill to be paid.  Then, if it isn’t paid by the 11th day, a red tag is placed on the residence reminding the person that they have 24-hours to pay their bill or their water will be shut off.

At last week’s street/sewer/sanitation/water committee meeting, City Clerk Diane Kennedy said that less than 1% of the population doesn’t pay their water bill and then is upset when their water service is turned off.

Another problem has been that residents have been allowed to set their own payment date if they have a delinquent account.  However, some people still don’t pay and it is taking an average of 40-hours per month for City staff to try and get payment from delinquent accounts.

For rental properties, the water bill is in the renter’s name but if that person leaves, then the bill is put in the landowner’s name until the City is notified of a new renter.

The committee decided to eliminate people’s ability to set their own payment dates for delinquent accounts and eliminate using red tags.

The only notification before water service is shut off is a 12-day letter in the mail.

Anyone with questions about the change to this procedure may call City Hall at 386-3111.