Village of Waterman Residents:
This letter is regarding the December 3, 2018 water bill you most recently received. We have heard your
concerns and wanted to explain the issues that made the bill confusing. We would like to share more
detail and explain them.
1. Earlier last year a billing system issue caused many residents to be billed incorrectly for water
usage on the February 1, 2018-April 30, 2018 quarterly bill. The billing system flipped previous
and current meter reads which caused the water usage to show as zero. Per the village ordinance,
there is a minimum charge for 6,000 gallons of water and that was charged on that bill. Those
affected by this issue will receive a credit of $60.54 toward their next bill (February 2019).
2. During the May 1, 2018-July 31, 2018 billing cycle, a system upgrade took place and actual
meter reads were not possible. The system used an estimate for usage. When the system
estimates the usage it underestimates the usage to avoid overcharging.
3. The current bill was delayed due to purchasing new, updated meter readers. Meaning the recently
issued bill is for four months, not three. Specifically, your current bill is from August 1, 2018-
December 3, 2018. This means your next bill will only be for 2 months, December 4, 2018-
January 31, 2019.
4. On your bill, the “Bill From” represents the last date a bill was mailed and “Bill To” dates
represents most recent meter read. They do not represent usage dates. We apologize for the
misleading dates this past billing cycle.
5. For this past billing cycle the actual usage is based on the last meter read in February 2018 and
the current read which was completed on December 3, 2018, subtracting the estimated amounts
from the May 1, 2018- July 31, 2018 bill that were already charged. Again anyone who was
effected by the minimum charge billing issued discussed in item #1 above will receive their credit
next bill cycle.
We understand your frustrations and as residents of the community we are not immune to our own billing
issues. We have agreed to waive late charges for this billing cycle and if you need to set up a payment
plan please contact the village clerk. We also encourage all residents to verify your meter reads within a
few thousand gallons of the actual meter read on your current bill. If you discover an issue with this or
have any other questions please contact the village clerk.
We are confident the reading equipment and software issues have now been addressed and we will move
forward with actual water usage reads on the following quarterly schedule: Bills will be mailed within 2
weeks of the end of the billing cycle. Payments are due 30 days after the bills are received and bill will
reflect due date.
Feb 1 – April 30
May 1 – July 31
August 1 – October 31
November 1 – January 31
Respectfully Yours,
Waterman Village Board
In this original prairie town the first settlers lived in abandoned teepees before their homes were built Pottawatomie Indians lived southwest of Waterman when the first settlers arrived in 1835.
