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Staff recommends keeping quarterly water billing after survey, citing higher costs and added staff for monthly cycles
Summary
Public works staff presented options to move Colonial Beach from quarterly to bimonthly or monthly water billing but recommended staying with quarterly billing after a survey showed about 70% opposition; staff said moving to bimonthly would add about $7,821.36 annually and monthly about $31,285.32 and would require additional staff.
Public works staff (S6, identified in the meeting as Schafer) presented a pros-and-cons analysis of switching Colonial Beach's water billing from quarterly to bimonthly or monthly cycles and told the council staff now favors keeping quarterly billing after a citizen survey.
Schafer said more frequent billing would smooth revenue flow and allow earlier leak detection but would increase billing costs, postage and meter-reading workloads and require more staff time. "If we went to bimonthly, it would increase our current cost by $7,821.36. If we went to monthly, it would increase our current cost by $31,285.32," S6 said.
Schafer told the council the town's vendor and current systems limit how much the town could lower customer transaction fees. Council member Wood asked about the per-transaction charge for customers who pay automatically, and Schafer said card transactions carry a higher merchant fee while ACH or electronic check payments are lower (Schafer cited roughly a $2.95 ACH transaction). Wood also asked whether switching to monthly billing would accelerate the period before a customer is considered delinquent; Schafer said staff would likely align cutoffs with the billing cycle, which could lead to customers facing shutoffs sooner than under a 90-day calendar.
Staff reported that a recent survey of 105 respondents showed about 70% preferred keeping the current quarterly schedule. Because of survey feedback and the added operational costs, Schafer said staff recommends retaining quarterly billing and, if the council chooses to change the schedule, delaying implementation (staff suggested not before January 2026) to allow customer notification and operational adjustments.
Council members noted that customers who currently want monthly payments can already enroll through the finance office and that the choice to change billing frequency carries tradeoffs between customer convenience, collection timing and municipal staffing and postage costs. No motion to change the billing frequency was made at the meeting.
