Owensboro Municipal Utilities is bumping up the number of disconnects per day, though officials said it is still fewer than the rate prior to the pandemic. They said the move is also in part to encourage customers to access the financial aid currently available to those struggling to pay bills.
Officials said they recently began disconnecting 96 customers per week — up from 48 in December — and that number will grow to 144 in February.
“Pre-COVID, we averaged probably twice that amount of disconnects a week,” said OMU General Manager Kevin Fizzell. “We don’t want to give anybody the impression that we have ramped up and we’re doing many more disconnects than we did (before the pandemic). But we are ramping up to work on that backlog.”
After they lifted their self-issued ban on disconnects, OMU worked with customers late on their bills by creating payment plans to get back on track.
A total of 1,861 plans were created, with a total balance of about $1.54 million. As of Thursday, there were still 1,476 customers on plans with a balance of $1.12 million.
“Folks are on their payment plans and trying to pay their balances, and we appreciate that,” Frizzell said.
As of Thursday, there were 553 accounts owing $121,674 eligible for disconnect — with 525 of those being residential customers owing $115,017, and the remainder as commercial customers.
Michael Moore, OMU Director Of Customer and Shared Services, said they were bumping up disconnects in hopes of encouraging customers to focus on either staying on their payment plan or getting caught up.
“There are available funds and assistance agencies, this is income tax season, people are getting economic stimulus checks, those types of things … We figured we needed to move up the disconnects to a normal level over time so that we drove some of this behavior to get those funds while they’re out there and available,” Moore said. “If you allow it to go on and on, basically what’s going to happen with some of our customers, they’re going to get two or three months past due, and then you’re going to get into the big summer months where your electric bill is higher.”
OMU was required to waive late fees for residential customers through the end of December, those fees were reinstated for commercial customers with bills due on or after Nov. 6.
Through Dec. 31, a total of $451,271 worth of late fees had been waived.
