Lafourche seniors struggle to pay water bill on time

A Lafourche Parish Council resolution requesting Water District No. 1 to change the due date of their utility bill from the first to the third of every month isn’t as simple as it sounds, according to Water District No. 1 General Manager Dirk Barrios.

Submitted by councilman Matt Matherne after receiving complaints from five constituents, the council initially approved the resolution at its May 25 meeting.

Matherne said his constituents told him they receive government checks on the first of the month and struggle to pay their water bill when it is due on the same day.

“They would like to get it to where they pay their bill after they receive their check,” he said. “You wouldn’t have had several people ask you to change two or three days if you didn’t have a need.”

At last week’s parish council meeting, Barrios addressed the council and explained there are four billing cycles comprising 31,000 customers in Lafourche Parish.

“Each cycle represents between 6,500 and 8,000 customers,” Barrios said. “Someone has to get bills at the beginning of the month. Someone gets bills in the second, third and fourth weeks of the month.”

Upon receipt of the bill, customers are given 20 days to pay it without incurring a penalty, meaning if someone receives the bill in the second week cycle, it is likely the 20th day could fall on the first of the following month.

Five days after the bill is due, a 10 percent penalty is administered and, if the bill is not paid in seven additional days, water is turned off.

“You have 32 days to pay the bill and 25 without a penalty,” Barrios said. “You’re not affecting one individual, you’re affecting between 6,500 and 8,000 people when you talk about changing a billing cycle.”

Although Barrios said altering the billing cycle so that no one’s bill is due on the first of a given month would be next to impossible, he said the water district is looking at different avenues to help those people out.

“We’re not here to shut anybody’s water off,” said Barrios. “It’s probably mostly elderly people, so we’re going to see what we can do to help all the people in that group out, and we’re going to apply it uniformly throughout the parish if it’s possible. I don’t want to make any promises, but I’ll promise that we’ll try.”

Barrios said he has discussed extensions with the water board, but he isn’t sure of the future of those suggestions.

“We need to make sure it doesn’t cost the district money, and it doesn’t make the problem worse,” he said. “If it does work out, we would probably set up some kind of form people could fill out to say they are getting these types of checks.”

Barrios said he hopes the resolution gets rescinded, because many people still receive checks in the mail rather than electronic billing.

“The resolution doesn’t address what they’re trying to say,” he said. “Even not billing from the first and the third, I think, isn’t going to rectify the problem people are having, because if you’re getting a check in the mail, something could happen and you wouldn’t get it until the sixth, seventh or eighth [of the month].”