Customers are encouraged to pay their account balances through Sept. 30 to avoid late payment penalties or potential service shut-offs.
Water shut-offs were previously suspended on March 31 by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. However, that suspension ended on July 10 and cities were left to decide when to resume shut-offs.
“The (Greene) county commissioners got ahead of that and went one step further and actually told their customers, ’not only are we not going to shut you off, but we’re not going to charge you penalties for any charges that are accumulated during that period,” said Jason Tincu, Greene Co. sanitary engineering director.
The City of Dayton resumed penalties and shut-offs on July 14.
Typically, Greene Co. customers with a balance greater than $80 will be shut off if not paid after being notified of the overdue balance.
“Say you are a customer of ours and let’s say you owe $85, you’ll get a disconnect notice on Oct. 1 saying ’hey if you don’t pay this by Oct. 10, we’re going to be there to shut your water off.” Tincu said. “So it’s a tough pill to swallow but at the same point in time if we don’t do that then people will take advantage of us.”
Customers still experiencing financial hardships as a result of COVID-19 are being reassured by the county that payment plans are available if a significant balance has accumulated during the pandemic.
“If somebody has accrued a $400 balance, we’re not going to expect them to pay us all of that right out of the gate,” Tincu said. They can call in and we’ll offer them a payment plan.”
A 6-month and 12-month payment plan will be available to customers struggling to catch up, Tincu said. Anyone who needs to learn about payment plan opportunities should contact the Billing Group at 937-562-7457.
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