Water Company Says It Alerted Cities It Would Stop Billing Services

  • Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tennessee American Water decided last year to exit billing service contracts by Oct. 31, 2012, and started meeting with all affected parties at that time "to provide ample opportunity for us to work with them to assure as smooth a transition as possible," water company officials said Wednesday.

Jessica Presley, spokesperson, said, "Discussions have continued since that time, and our communications have included potential vendors that they can potentially use for these billing services in the future.

"In January, the company sent to these municipalities additional notification regarding the ending of these contracts.

This most recent written notification complies with language in the contracts, which stipulates that either party can end the billing services arrangement with a written six-month notice.

"Tennessee American Water, like most companies and organizations, continuously reviews its processes and activities so that it can be as effective and efficient as possible in its core business - which is providing reliable, high quality water service for our customers. We believe the resources needed to continue providing such billing contracts do not contribute to our long-term goals, and so a change is needed."

Red Bank Mayor Monty Millard said his city received a letter last week, saying the service would end no later than Oct. 31.

He said, "This is a bad problem for us. This is going to be extremely costly for us."

Mayor Millard said he and other local government officials plan to meet with water company brass about the issue on Wednesday. He said, "We hope we can somehow convince them to change their minds."

The mayor said the water company receives a fee of more than three percent to handle the billing for Red Bank's sewage and garbage services. He said the payment amounted to $15,560 last year.

If the city has to do the job on its own, it will likely have to hire an employee to handle it or farm it out to a private firm, he said.

The water company includes the city of Chattanooga sewer billings on water bills to customers within the city limits.   

Richard Beeland of the mayor's office said the city should be able to find an alternate billing service without too much problem.

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