Hillsboro going after utility deadbeats
Staff writer
The City of Hillsboro has changed its policy on people not paying utility bills.
City Clerk Danielle Bartel told City Council members last week the city had streamlined its shut-off process.
“We now charge $25 to send out a warning letter and $25 to turn the power back on,” she said.
Electric workers deliver 20 to 30 letters to delinquent users.
The first month doing this cut down the delinquencies. Currently, 30 properties are delinquent.
“At least now we are recouping some of those costs,” Bartel said. “That’s $750 a month we are able to recoup out of delivery reminders for those fewer stops.”
Many delinquent users are repeat offenders.
The city has also pondered problems with solar power.
A solar power customer, who lives in the town, has complained for 18 months about the system not working.
“It’s really a consumer issue,” City Administrator Matt Stiles said. “We are not really certified to work on them.”
The city tried to help with financing, but that did not work, Stiles said.
The city tried to get the resident in touch with the attorney general’s office, but were not helpful, he said, so the matter was referred to Sen. Roger Marshall’s office, and his office is reaching out to the customer.
“I would always try to caution people when they have a solar person trying to sell them a solar project,” Stiles said. “They always over promise and underdeliver on these.
“I’m not saying they are all bad, as at least one in town does really well, but you just got to use a lot of caution and common sense.”
Stiles encourage residents to talk to city employees before signing anything.
“We’re actually going to be taking up distributed generation at our next meeting,” he said. State laws have changed, he added. The city must update its plan and ways to adapt with solar being more popular.