City of Covington Mayor Mark Johnson shares in an email update information concerning the water bill increase and recent glitches in the billing cycle. Sign up for Mayor Mark’s email updates at www.covla.com.
From Mayor Mark Johnson:
Dear Residents and Business Owners,
This month we rolled out the utility rate hike that is helping fund the police officer pay raise. There is one glitch in the roll out, one glitch Covid related and a third typical concern:
1) Three hundred customers with 1″ water lines were mis-coded in the change. This is evident if your water charge is greater than your sewer charge. All of these have been adjusted. If you like, you can e-mail me for your new adjusted amount. If you do pay the full amount, the difference will be credited on the next bill. Sorry for the inconvenience.
2) We experienced a Covid outbreak among Meter Techs. Due to the manpower shortage, the current billing cycle ranges from 37 to 43 days rather than the typical 30 days. This should result in your bill being 25 -33% higher than normal. Add to that the $20 – $30 rate hike and BOOM … your bill is 50% higher than usual. This is an anomaly and should not continue.
If the higher bill presents a problem for you, please e-mail me. We will make arrangements.
3) Meter readings: Many of our water meters have reached the end of their life expectancy. If your water usage reports 5 times or more greater than the norm, please let us know. We will order a re-read. Sidenote: We are currently replacing about 50 old meters each week with new meters.
With the above in mind, if you have a concern about your current bill, please e-mail a copy of it directly to me, mayormark@covla.com. I am overseeing the resolution of concerns.
Sincerely,
Mark Johnson
Mayor
City of Covington
