Scottville to charge fee even if water and sewer are shut off.

SCOTTVILLE — Scottville property owners who shut off their water will have to continue to pay a monthly fee for the service if the city commission passes a resolution being recommended from the infrastructure committee.

City Manager Amy Williams said she attended a seminar earlier this year and found out that most communities charge a readiness to serve fee for water and sewer whether or not the water is turned off at a residence/business.

Currently, Scottville only charges the fee for water and sewer that is turned on.

“In the event they have a vacant building or go away for the winter and the water is turned off we haven’t been charging the readiness to serve fees, which are $35.86 per month,” Williams said. “The readiness to serve fees are really intended to pay towards any current or future debt on the systems, so in our case those residents with water turned off are not paying their share of the debt.  Like most communities our bills are figured on two items, readiness to serve fees and water consumption.

“Our sewer fund has a significant amount of debt and our water fund will soon have debt of its own.  Depending on the time of the year we can have 30 or more buildings with their water shut off, this equates to a loss of at least $13,000 per year for us (water & sewer combined).

The city commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at Scottville City Hall, 105 N. Main St.