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Water woes

Highlands Today Photo Illustration by Jasmina Meyer

Along with their past due balance Avon Park residents will have to pay $40 to reconnect to the city's water.

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By AIYANA BAIDA

Highlands Today

Published: November 3, 2009

AVON PARK - Joe Moore isn't shy about telling Avon Park's city council he's not happy with the water rate increase.

He tried to change their minds at the September council meeting, but when that didn't work and he couldn't afford to pay his bill, he came up with a solution: Well water.

"My water was turned off twice in a matter of 30 days," Moore said.

He connected his home to well water after his water was turned off in September.

"I was in the house when they disconnected the water. Why didn't they knock on the door and tell me?" Moore asked.

Moore said he made an $80 payment after he was disconnected the first time on Aug. 5, but $40 of that went to the reconnection fee. He was disconnected again on Sept. 9 for a $153.70 delinquent bill.

Moore, a self employed handy man and single dad, was able to manage his water bill with the old system. He could make minimum payments, pay the remaining balance with the next bill and had two months to get the money to pay the bill before it was disconnected.

Now, Moore and the other 1,302 residents, who were delinquent this year on their water bills only have 10 days before disconnection.

With the new ordinance, which went into effect July 27, full payments must be made no more than 10 days after the billing date or residents will find their water has been disconnected.

"If they do not pay their bill, we cannot continue to provide them with service," said Margie Ludden, Avon Park utility billing supervisor.

Of the 7,801 residents connected to the city's water, 885 of them were disconnected for non-payment. August had the highest disconnects at 157.

On average there are 145 residents who are delinquent with their payments every month.

Although these numbers show a lot of residents struggling to pay their water bill, it's nothing out of the norm.

"We've had complaints but nothing excessive," Ludden said.
Avon Park is not the only city with residents paying late. In Sebring, an average of 2,440 residents are late and an average of169 paid reconnection fees.

Civil disobedience?

Moore and his daughter left for Hollywood on Aug. 1 to care for his mother who suffered a major heart attack. They called the city's water department to make arrangements to pay and were told that to avoid disconnection they had to pay by 1 p.m. on Aug. 5.

By 8 a.m. Aug. 5 Moore woke up and there was no water. He headed for city hall and was told that no one could remember talking with his daughter about their bill.

"They said they never spoke to her...I remember she called the number on our water bill that goes straight to city hall. If she didn't talk to them, who was she talking to - Kmart?" Moore asked.

Code enforcement cited Moore after realizing that he was disconnected from city water for several weeks. Under city ordinance, if a home is connected to the city's water and sewer system, the owner must be connected.

Capt. Donald Simmons, of code enforcement, said he spoke to Moore about the violation but it was not corrected. Three certified letters were mailed to Moore but returned.

The city's utility department said Moore's case is now a code enforcement issue.

The case will appear before a special magistrate, who hears code violation complaints, on Nov 19.

Simmons said this is the first case he's come across where a resident decided to use well water in lieu of city water.

Moore said he's rebelling against the city's water because of the way they went about enforcing the new ordinance. A notification of the violation will be placed in front of Moore's home 10 days before the hearing by code enforcement.

"They forced me to do this because they kept shutting my water off...and they didn't offer to work with me," Moore said.

Highlands Today reporter Aiyana Baida can be reached at (863)386-5855 or nbaida@highlandstoday.com

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