Marion addresses utility bill delays
Staff writer
Marion residents have faced delays receiving utility bills by mail. Some don’t get them until just days before the payment deadline.
“I’ve had a couple people contact me,” council member Kevin
Burkholder said during Monday’s city council meeting. “A lot of times, they wouldn’t get their bill until the 10th or 11th. … I got mine I think, one time, actually on the 12th.”
City administrator Brian Wells said Tuesday that the delays weren’t related to new water meters. Bills still are mailed on the first of each month, except this August, when the employee responsible for sending them was out sick.
Bills are mailed from the U.S. Postal Service in Wichita and pass through Kansas City before reaching Marion.
“Odds are, that’s probably part of it,” Wells said.
A 10% charge is added when a bill isn’t paid on-time, according to city code.
Wells suggested Monday that the council amend the code to move utility bill due date from the 15th to the 20th of each month. He also has looked into an electronic payment system, but said the city isn’t “ready to do that yet.”
“It’d be expensive,” he said Tuesday. “We haven’t even identified a vendor. I’m just thinking in the future, that might be a good way to go.”
No action was taken Monday, but the proposal could return on a future agenda.
Odds and ends
Looking through Monday’s city council meeting agenda packet, a few things stood out.
Zach Collett was listed as voting yes on the city’s budget exceeding the revenue neutral rate, despite stepping down in May.
Current council member Tim Baxa caught the error at the start of the meeting and asked that the record be corrected.
The council also approved $229,511.07 in warrants, including
- $25,000 to EBH Engineering for an evaluation of Marion’s water treatment plant;
- $167 in near-daily police car washes;
- $263.01 for Internet service for a chamber of commerce that no longer exists;
- $378 for Art in the Park T-shirts;
- $198 to Western Associates for police polo shirts to wear at events when off duty.