‘Unless persuaded,’ Bainbridge may cap past-due accounts

BAINBRIDGE -- Though proceedings are strictly preliminary at this point, councilmen in Bainbridge are keen on enforcing a stringent ordinance already implemented by many small towns across Indiana, prompting tense discussion Wednesday that lasted for most of the regularly-scheduled town hall meeting.

As in most small towns, Bainbridge can supply its residents with services such as electricity, natural gas, water and sewage, most typically the latter. What is unique about Bainbridge, however, is that it only seeks financial restitution against the resident in whose name the bill was originally signed, leaving property owners who let houses/rooms and landlords free of any monetary obligation in the event a renter skips town.

With his sights set on introducing the proposed ordinance (which would allow the town to hold property owners and landlords liable for the final bill, lest service be discontinued), Board President Jerry Lents said Wednesday that his mind will not be changed and the town must begin to realistically recoup the $29,000 lost over a 10-year period -- $3,000 of which has been recovered since the start of the year when the issue was brought to light by new board members and a new clerk-treasurer.

Essentially, the ordinance would not allow utilities to be reactivated until the final bill is paid in full and, in the event a renter leaves without paying, the property owner would be responsible for satisfying the bill in its entirety before service can be restored and the property effectively leased again.

“Let’s say you’re a renter and you rent off (of) me and you have for 10 years,” Lents said as he explained how the new ordinance would work. “Now, let’s say next month you don’t pay your bill -- either I pay it, since I’m the property owner, or (the utility department) goes and shuts it off and not turn it back on until that bill is paid ... I’m going to have to pay it to get it turned back on so I can get you off of my property and re-rent it to somebody else. Point blank.”

However, not everyone in attendance Wednesday was so sure, specifically the clerk-treasurer and the president of the Park Board.

“I feel like the people, whoever is living there, should be responsible for their own bills,” Clerk-treasurer Monica Bray said. “They pay for their own satellite and TDS ... and they pay off their other utility-like services.”

Lents retorted with some statistics acquired through recent efforts to justify the ordinance.

“I brought this up back in January and we’ve been talking about it for five months,” he said. “I’ve talked to 10 or 11 towns and every town does this except Bainbridge. Every town does this. Why should we not recoup?”

Bray responded by saying, “I feel like we’re doing a good job how we are currently doing it.”

“With the information that we have, the approximately $26,000 (lost) over a 10-year period, you’re looking at $2,600 a year or less than one percent,” Bray said. “It’s like half of one percent of our total savings.”

Lents responded by reiterating what he had said earlier, symbolically justifying what Bray and others at the meeting believed could be an over-simplification.

“In my opinion, and this is just me talking -- I can’t speak for (Councilman Joel Thompson) and (Councilman Scott Curran), and I can’t speak for the Utility Board and I can’t speak for you, the clerk-treasurer,” he said. “You’re an elected official and the town of Bainbridge provides these services to its residents, and the town of Bainbridge should be paid for that service, regardless. That service should be paid for. It’s like when you go up to the gas station and pump your car full of gas -- you have to pay for your gas.”

Laurie Hensley, president of the Park Board, explained what she believed to be an injustice to landlords in the event a renter leaves without paying.

“This is a business and every business has profit and loss, and this is a less-than one-percent loss,” she said. “At the last meeting, when we were having this conversation, you said ‘if a property owner is renting to someone and they don’t pay their bill, that person leaves town and (the town is) stuck with the bill.’

“But the majority of the time, whenever a person leaves this town, they also leave without paying their rent,” Hensley continued. “So you are out and so is the landlord, and that’s exactly what you’re saying. You’re saying that the landlords are profiting because they still get their money -- that’s not true either. You are not getting your money; the landlords aren’t getting their money; you have to go after (renters) using the law; and the landlords have to go after them using the law. You’ve provided a service and they’ve provided a service ... and not all landlords take first and last month’s rent (for a deposit to cover the loss).”

Though Lents and Thompson are seemingly determined to implement the proposed ordinance, the board was advised by its legal counselor not to issue a first-reading Wednesday. Instead, the proposed ordinance will have to be advertised for a period of 10 days before the first-reading, prompting the board to table the issue until such advertisement can be achieved through the use of the Banner Graphic, utility-bill inserts and door signs at town hall.

Lastly, Thompson ended the discussion by encouraging those against the ordinance to present their arguments at the next town hall meeting in June.

More updates are expected in the coming months with June presumed to hold the first-reading of the proposed ordinance.

In other business:

• A Park Board report was given by Hensley, updating the board on recent activities at the park by several Bainbridge Elementary students, including the planting of dogwood trees, landscaping and an upcoming bench made of recycled bottle caps.

• A Utility Board report was heard by the board. Smoke testing will soon take place in an attempt to locate the source of a significant iodine leak that has been leaking into the town’s clean-water supply since the early 1990s. In times of heavy rain, the town experiences an iodine leak stemming from an unknown source.

Also, road paving will take place the week of May 22.

• Town Marshal Rodney Fenwick delivered his monthly marshal’s report. Fenwick displayed one of three recently-acquired assault rifles at the Bainbridge Police Department. The assault rifles, which range from semi to fully automatic, are intended to help police combat an alarming number of shootings for a town of its size with seven occurring in the month of April alone.

The rifles, which come with a $15,000 price tag, were donated to the town.

Fenwick gave personal assurance to the board that only trained and qualified officers will be considered to operate the rifles.

• Fireworks for the upcoming Independence Day activities were approved. The fireworks will again be purchased from Mortonville Fireworks in the amount of $3,000, a 20-percent increase from 2016.

• The next regularly-scheduled public session for the town of Bainbridge will be on Wednesday, June 14 beginning at 6:30 p.m. inside town hall (201 N. Grant Ave., Bainbridge).