Town of Hennessey utility customers who were “overbilled” were “corrected” and “adjusted down” last week.

That’s what Hennessey Town Administrator Tiffany Rowen included in her written report to town trustees Friday morning.

That report was made three days after trustees fielded complaints from two customers and other visitors in the audience, throughout their 90-minute meeting.

Rowen did not attend that board meeting last week due to illness and was off work for two days.

“During the July meeting, it was brought to our attention that a meter# was incorrect,” Rowen wrote. “During the July meter reading cycle, we did a complete audit of every meter in the ground verifying that the meter number was correct. During that we found that there were approximately 7 meters with the wrong meter number. We have gone in and corrected all of them, as well as adjusted bills accordingly. If the customer was overbilled, we adjusted it down. If the customer was under- billed, we just let it ride since it was our mistake.”

Rowen went on to say that steps are being taken in an attempt to avoid further miscues.

“(Public Works Director) Alyssa (Kubat) and I have implemented that and from now on pictures will be taken and provided to Town Hall through the work order system so that we can try to eliminate this problem in the future,” Rowen wrote.

Utility Complaint Policy

Rowen also added the town is getting information from other municipalities regarding their utility bill complaint policies and a new utility service policy.

“I will have draft copies by the September meeting for board members to review and make any recommended changes,” she wrote.

Mayor Wants Town Meeting with Water Meter Provider

During last week’s board meeting, Mayor Randy Bohnstedt said he wanted a special town board meeting this month with the town’s meter reading provider.

When contacted on Monday, he said Kubat is working on that.

“I hope we can get a meeting with them lined up,” the mayor told the KT&FP Monday afternoon. “I want to get some answers for everyone.”

“Somehow we’ve got to get the bottom of what’s going on, figure it out and come up with a corrective action,” said Trustee David Jones.

Bullis Continues With Complaints

Kelly Bullis, who started complaints about “inaccurate” water meters last month, joined Sherri Lee and Austin Whittenburg when they talked about their problems at last week’s meeting.

That’s also when Bullis and Trustee Bert Gritz hooked horns.

Bullis had lodged her complaints last month about billing problems at her business properties, but Gritz, the senior member of the board, wasn’t at that meeting.

During her report this month Gritz told: “You can convince, or try to convince the board, to adjust your bill. The board can do that. I am not in favor of that because I’ve been down this road before. And next month we’ll have 50.”

“That’s because you need to address the problem with the meters,” Bullis said.

“No, because people are watering their lawns and they’re going to come out,” he said.

“I wasn’t watering the lawn,” she said.

“I understand,” he said. “I was running no water.”

“I understand you weren’t.”

“Okay, you understand that I wasn’t,” she said, “but you will not adjust my bill. You just said it. You understood.”

“I understand you’re not watering the lawn up there…But I’m just saying everybody in the summer gets a higher bill. I’m getting higher bills.”

“I haven’t,” she said. “I have not gotten a higher bill all summer long…Until the $250 (water bill) at 1061 South Main and then the $1,100 bill at 1341 South Main.”

“I’m not going to argue with you,” Gritz said.

Bullis is Hosting Town Hall Meeting Wednesday Evening

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” she told Gritz last week, “this is why I’m just going to announce it right here: On Aug. 20, we’re going to have a town hall meeting right across the street (from Town Hall).”

That is this Wednesday and is from 6 to 8 p.m. at the 122 Building, Bullis said.

“And I invite you all. I invite all the citizens who have had problems, because I know there are many, because we’ve got issues in this town,” Bullis said. “I don’t know if you remember the audit that still hasn’t been presented.”

“I wish you’d call the state auditor and ask for it,” said Gritz.

“Trust me, I am. I’m not only stopping at the state auditor,” Bullis said.

The New Water System

“I really think that, and I hope I’m not being too optimistic,” said Gritz, “but I’m really thinking this new system that we just voted to spend $206,000 on is going to correct our problems. And I’m definitely in favor of making a policy that it gets checked every day, or every third day, or whatever, and to notify the public.”

“So when does this new equipment get installed?” asked Ashley Zielny from the audience.

“Now that we’ve accepted the contract, it’ll be as soon as we can get them scheduled,” said Mayor Randy Bohnstedt.

“So what if you have more citizens that come, and continue to complain?” Zielny asked. “Are you guys just going to say, ‘sorry about your life? We’re getting a new system.’” “We’re hopeful that the new system is going to work,” Bohnstedt said. “I’m willing to take suggestions on exactly what to do.”

Give Citizens Back Their Money

“I think you should do the right thing and give these citizens back what they deserve,” Zielny said.

“This is us building a system where this data will come into a database here at Town Hall on a daily basis and I’m not sure exactly how often we will get that,” said the mayor.

“But the way I was made to understand this is whenever we’re able to get it, we are going to be able to trend, then see patterns a lot easier than we can if we’re only doing this once a day. Am I right on that, or am I wrong?”

“Yes, you’re right,” said Kubat.

“We’re going to get this a lot more often than what we’re getting it currently,” he said. “So we’ll be able to go out and pull these meters and it’ll tell us where we’re at volume-wise. So if we start seeing big jumps, it’s going to be a lot easier for us to detect that without people coming in and saying something.

“Because,” he added, “outside of now, we don’t know that until after our billing cycle. And then, you know, we’re reactive. We’re not proactive. And that’s the problem.”

Reactive/Reactions

“The problem is the result of the reaction,” said Bullis. “So you guys say that you’re reactive. Well you’re reactive, but there’s no action behind it. It’s just like, well, we ran a field meter test, or a field test, and it showed that it went through and that’s because you’ve got a plumbing leak. I mean that is the same answer to everybody.

“It’s just, it’s repetitive.” “How do we be fair about that?” asked Gritz.

“They have proof and you just reimburse them,” said Zielny.

“I mean they have, all of them have proof,” said Bullis, “and you guys are just ignoring it and you just keep saying, ‘sorry about your luck, it ain’t happened to me.’ I mean this woman has got a plumber for a husband.”

“I understand,” said Gritz.

“Pay it, or it gets shut off,” Lee was told. “How come you cannot reimburse her for that? It was a vacant house! No one was there!”

“Because,” said Gritz, “I don’t feel comfortable as a board member saying we’re reimbursing you $500, you $200 and you $30. I think we’ve got to come up with a fair system. And I’ve been down this road before and the town used to adjust water bills way more frequently than now.”

What about air?

Frank Patton, from the audience, said: “I would like to see you guys ask the meter company if water pressure, fluctuations in the water line pressure, could that be gerrymandering the way it’s reading the meter? It should be reading that. Without pressure, it’s not going to be able to measure that. So if it’s got five pounds of pressure, or 30 pounds of pressure, it doesn’t affect the reading? It does affect the reading, but it should do that calculation inside of the electronics…and I know that we have a lot of water pressure fluctuations.”

“Sure. What about air?” asked Bullis.

“That’s a good question,” said Bohnstedt. “That is a great question. I never even thought about that.”

She said, “I will tell you that when that was going on at the 409 Center, I had lots of air in my water.”

“Okay. Lots of air. I hadn’t even thought about that. When we go down for maintenance, or something like that, we get a lot of air,” the mayor said.

“Will the citizens get a copy, or be able to see, the new system that was approved tonight?” the mayor was asked.

“Sure. You mean a copy of this, the contract? I think it’s all public record, I believe. So, yeah, that won’t be an issue.”

“Here’s what I’d recommend: We have Alyssa get hold of their media representative and get him scheduled. Once we get him, we will put a notice out in the media that, yes, he’s going to be here on such and such time. And I’d like to see every one of you come back.”

“And because you’ve got questions, you brought up the question about the air. That’s a good question. I can’t answer it, but hopefully he can. That’s what I was going to say about the water pressure when you reload the line, there is a lot of air,” the mayor said.

“Also, we will discuss, and Shelley’s going to put it on the agenda, a policy concerning refunding.”

“I don’t think we can just refund without having some kind of policy and you also have to go with the state statute,” said Trustee Harold Shaw.

“Absolutely, and all of us can have a copy of that state statute to make sure our policy is right,” said the mayor.

There was also talk about getting the manufacturer of the defective meters to come to a public meeting because, he convinced the town to purchase the meters because of their accuracy.

“Now, you’ve got to stand behind that,” the mayor said. “And so what does that look like and how do we make this right? So that’s what I want them to answer and then I feel like that gives us a better route to go as far as for the citizens and you guys holding us accountable.”

“I completely agree, but I also, I would agree that us giving, you know, two or three refunds right now isn’t a solution to the problem, Bohnstedt said.

“We’d just be putting a Band-Aid over it and so let’s go and do some research and then let’s figure out a policy to fix this every time, rather than right now.”

At the Meeting

All trustees were present: Bohnstedt, Vice Mayor John Peach, Gritz, Jones and Shaw.

Other town officers and staffers at the meeting were: Kubat, Town Treasurer Kelley Vaverka and Town Clerk/Town Hall Office Manager Shelley Burch.

Absent were Rowen who was ill and Town Attorney Jared Harrison, who was on vacation.