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St. C. suspends late fees

T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK St. Clairsville mayor’s secretary Jody Williams attends to Monday’s teleconference among city leaders. They conducted business and suspended late fees for utility payments until April 30.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Residents having difficulties making utility payments due to the novel coronavirus pandemic will have some relief during the next two months.

During a teleconference last week, city council unanimously voted to temporarily suspend late fees on utility bills from March 1 through April 30.

“This is in response to the mandatory layoffs of a lot of people and the closing of businesses,” Council President Jim Velas said. “This is our first attempt in looking at what we could do to assist the residents of the city that are going to be running into financial hardship.”

“We know there are people who lost their jobs due to this virus,” Mayor Kathryn Thalman said afterward.

She said those who make utility payments online would still be subject to a $4.50 fee, since a third party handles the billing, but customers have the option of using drop boxes around the city building.

Anita Robinson, billing clerk with the utility office, said a spike of late payments is expected. She said the late fees usually charged are 10 percent of whatever is past due.

“We normally, on an average … around $7,000 to $8,000 each month in penalties that we collect,” she said. “This month is average. Next month I anticipate it to be larger.”

“We received a few calls from some of our customers that do own businesses, small businesses in the area, and they are concerned with how they are going to be paying the utility bills,” she said. “We feel we are here to help our customers. Once this is all said and done, we are going to have to come up with something … maybe a payment plan or something.”

Robinson said the recently passed Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act could allow small businesses to apply for a loan, which may not have to be repaid if used to pay expenses such as utility bills. She said more information can be found at https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/cares-act-small-business-guide.

During the meeting, Thalman also reported on work to keep the city and services operational during the past several weeks, including meeting with residents, officials, employers and employees impacted by the pandemic.

“We want to understand their needs in this time of uncertainty,” she said. “We don’t know how long this economic impact will be of this pandemic.

“We do not know how long this will last.”

Thalman also said the city would maintain staffing levels in order to remain eligible to participate in the payback protection program in the federal relief stimulus package.

“We’re still working on understanding it and details are coming out daily,” she said. “One provision of the stimulus plan is a paycheck protection program, which is meant to ensure the organization has funds to pay their employees to prevent layoffs,” she said. “Organizations including municipalities can receive up to $10 million in loans at 4 percent interest rates as long as they maintain their staffing levels.”

Thalman commended staff, employees and police officers for their work around the city and in setting up the teleconference, and the police who have been delivering prescriptions and food to residents and checking on children whose parents are at work.

Velas said he expected the next several meetings to be conducted via teleconference. The next meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today.

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