Customers of the Benton Harbor municipal water system are starting to pay their bills again.
The city’s Finance and Personnel Committee heard this week from Rhonda Hildebrand of Plante Moran, which has been managing the city’s finances. She said since the city sent out shutoff notices this month, payments have started coming in.
“In the month of April, collections were around $260,000, of which a lot came in the latter part of the month because of the announcement of the shut-off,” Hildebrand said. “The first two weeks of May, we’ve already collected $160,000. So that’s really on track for what a normal month should look like.”
Hildebrand said a normal month might see $320,000 to $340,000 in water payments come in. Although the city’s utilities fund remains depleted, she said it will start to be shored back up as people continue paying.
Hildebrand said $800,000 the city commission moved to the utilities fund in April has helped to keep the water system afloat while people start paying for water. However, she also noted with the $800,000 spent, the city’s federal ARPA funds are now all exhausted. It had received about $9.8 million in total.
The city stopped requiring payment of water bills when the lead crisis began. However, with all of the city’s lead water lines now replaced, it announced in March a shutoff moratorium was coming to an end.
