The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

April 13, 2009

UPDATE: Sharon Sanitary Authority plugs away at overdue bills

By Courtney L. Anderson

SHARON — Sharon Sanitary Authority and staff are still trying to tackle a delinquency rate that eventually could keep them from paying their bills unless more people start paying.

If all customers paid their bill each month, the authority would gross $390,000, project director Guy Cunningham said. Currently, unpaid bills total $80,000 to $100,000 a month.

Last month Cunningham reported a 36 percent delinquency rate for sewer customers and the rate was 25 percent this month, he said.

He said he couldn’t say if the drop in delinquency was because the authority was taking a more aggressive approach to collecting old bills, noting that the authority just last month started handling sewer billing itself.

Prior to the March meeting, 174 delinquent customers were notified that their water would be shut off and all but 10 paid up, Cunningham said.

This time, 295 units are set for shutoff early this week, Cunningham said.

Authority members discussed whether pursuing delinquent bills could be handled in-house instead of by a firm like Sharp Collections, Sharpsville, which collects the debts now.

They didn’t determine if they had enough manpower or if hiring another person would save money, compared with paying Sharp, which cost about $55,000 last year.

Cunningham said he received a “delete report” Thursday morning from Sharp listing $322,000 in accounts the agency essentially is giving up on collecting. He said he didn’t know how far back those delinquent bills went.

Most of those are landlords, some of whom owe more than $10,000, Cunningham said.

The authority declined to release the names of those landlords on the advice of solicitor William J. Madden, but authority President Robert Beach said he’d like to give them out.

Beach said the authority will be going after the money owed to them.

Also, the authority again heard from out-of-town landlords irked by this year’s rate hike.

Board member Vincent Cardamon said the rates rose because the authority has to pay for a $45 million upgrade to the treatment plant, something he called “mandated and unfunded” by the state and federal government.

The authority has applied for $20 million in federal grants that members have said would be put toward the debt. They’d then like to lower rates, if possible. It may be August before they find out if they’ve been awarded money.

Beach said the authority is inviting a representative from the state Department of Environmental Protection and federal legislators to the next meeting at noon May 14 in city building and people could complain to them about the regulations that required the new plant be built.

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