Harford County treasury officials say they are closing the tap on long-running water bills.
Beginning with this month's quarterly bills, customers of the county's water and sewer system who don't pay their bills on time will be issued delinquent notices immediately, warning that their water will be turned off 14 days later.
The new policy will mean more efficiency for county bill collectors and less confusion for customers, said Noreen Pyle, Harford's water and sewer accounting chief.
"We looked at the rules and regulations, and realized we were allowing too much time to elapse before the bills had to be paid and were putting a lot of administrative effort into the collection by sending too many notices," Mrs. Pyle said.
Under the county's old policy, if a bill was not paid by the due date -- 30 days from the date it was issued -- the Bureau of Accounting would send the customer a letter notifying him that his payment was delinquent.
If the bill still was not paid 20 days after the due date, a computer-generated shut-off notice would be issued, notifying the customer of a 14-day deadline for payment.
The new policy eliminates the customer's 20-day grace period, Mrs. Pyle said.
The county will continue charging the customer $50 when the water is turned off, she said. In line with the county's previous policy, there will be no additional charge for turning the water back on once payment is made.
County Treasurer James Jewell said he hopes the new policy also will reduce the amount of water -- and money -- wasted by consumers' leaky faucets and toilets. He said that often the high bills that go unpaid are caused by leaks.
"This may put some pressure on people to get those problems fixed," he said. "At least it will bring those problems to our attention earlier and may save the county water and the customers money in the long run."
Mr. Jewell said the county water system serves 27,321 residential, commercial and industrial customers, who are billed
four times a year. In the year ending June 30, 1994, he said, 20,691 late notices were mailed out. Only 400 resulted in shut-offs.
Mrs. Pyle said that under the old policy, delinquent letters were sometimes arriving on top of regular bills for the next billing cycle.
Now, customers will get only one late notice, with the potential shut-off date clearly indicated. The notice will arrive well before the next quarterly bill is due, she said.
Mrs. Pyle said an explanation of the new policy will be included with all quarterly bills beginning in the middle of this month.
"We're hoping [the new procedure] will speed up the collection process and eliminate the confusion," she said.