Time for city water customers to keep their accounts current

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Amnesty is over.

City water customers who have let their monthly utility bills lapse due to the threat of COVID-19 will have to become current again with their accounts, effective Nov. 10.

Adoption of Ordinance 2020-10, repealing Ordinance 2020-1, was made unanimously by the City Council at its recent special meeting, rescinding the moratorium on late payment fines and water service shut-offs.

The requirement for payment of water bills will resume and all outstanding balances for unpaid water bills shall be due and subject to late payments on Nov. 10.

The ordinance also gives Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar the authority to enter into payment plan agreements with customers who are in arrears on their accounts due to COVID-19 circumstances.

Dunbar said she has already met with a number of customers about payment arrangements and welcomes others to investigate that possibility at City Hall.

Meanwhile, the Council also passed first reading of an ordinance amending the 2020 salary ordinance to add the position of softball league director at $1,500 normally paid in two $750 increments in August and September. The position was inadvertently left out of the salary ordinance when it was passed earlier.

Park Director Rod Weinschenk serves as softball league director as well as youth basketball coordinator.

Councilman Cody Eckert questioned how much softball actually got played in 2020, asking if the $750 for the summer season had been paid out this year since there was no summer softball. A fall coed league has just finished up play. No further discussion took place.

Ordinance 2012-12 was passed unanimously on first reading following a motion by Councilor Jake Widner.

Mayor Bill Dory suggested that any adjustments, if necessary, can be made at second reading of the ordinance.

In other business, the Council granted a street closure request for an Election Watch Event Tuesday, Nov. 3 at DePauw University.

Chelsea Naylor appeared to make the request, explaining that TV coverage of the election will be projected from outside the Center for Diversity and Inclusion onto the Peeler Art Center wall on the other side of Hanna Street. Although targeted for students, the public is also invited to attend the event.

Permission to close Hanna Street between Jackson and Indiana streets was granted for 6:30-11 p.m. Tuesday on a motion by Councilor Stacie Langdon.

Joining Mayor Dory, Clerk-Treasurer Dunbar and Councilors Eckert, Langdon and Widner for the special session were Councilors Mark Hammer, Dave Murray and Veronica Pejril. Councilman Adam Cohen was absent.

The next regular session of the Greencastle City Council is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 at City Hall.

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