LAMAR — Too many customers of the East Nittany Valley Joint Municipal Authority are not paying their bills on time, the authority says.

And the agency’s efforts to properly collect the fees have allegedly led to death threats and harassment against board members over the past two months.

Gary L. Barrett Sr., chairman of the authority, reached out to The Express to voice his displeasure with the hostility being directed toward the authority, primarily its staff, and offered a way to relieve the issues involved with late fees.

“We have been getting calls and letters from people throughout the authority who are upset and confused about why they are getting the late fees,” Barrett said. “First of all, our system is automated. We set up late fees to encourage people to pay their bills on time. Once that is established, you just cannot arbitrarily wave a person’s late fees. You will set yourself up for a lawsuit because of that and it is expensive because you have to go in on an individual basis.”

The authority manages a large sanitary sewer system serving Porter and Lamar Townships in Clinton County, and Walker Township in Centre County.

It comprises about 5,000 customers and is growing.

Barrett explained how the authority bills and assess fees per customer.

“The authority follows what we call an equivalent daily use (EDU). Every house in the system has an EDU of 1. A factory, business, or any place using more water then goes to a metered system where you have to check their water usage, say for a whole year and base the billing off of that.”

“Once that is established, we would say that would be 10 EDUs a month for them and that will be what they will pay,” he explained.

“It is a flat rate of $59 a month per EDU for all customers and late fees are around $6. The bills do not fluctuate when you apply unless it is with an industry when they are first getting set up.”

“Late fees were established early on to encourage customers to be prompt in paying their bills so the Authority could in turn pay its bills on time. When our customers are late in paying, additional work is created on an individual basis and puts the burden on the authority to pay our bills with less funds. If late fees are not paid, it causes additional late fees to accumulate because the bill is not paid in full. When the bill continues to grow, we are then forced to take legal action, which will cause legal fees to be assessed. Actions can include water termination, lines being placed on the property and ultimately, the sale of the property at Sheriff’s sale,” he added.

Barrett urged authority customers who are assessed late fees, and those who are not paying them, that the issue is not the fault or responsibility of the authority.

Indeed, Barrett blames – to some extent – the United States Postal Service.

“The postal system has got its problems and they are most likely the cause of this. Most people are local and some are a bit out of the way and have to mail a payment. Something seems to have happened, whether it has to do with COVID and the postal service delivering the bill late. It is most likely to do with the mail services not getting the customers their bills on time,” Barrett said.

There are examples, Barrett said, of some customers receiving their bills a month later than they should have, even though they were mailed in a timely manner.

“Some have gotten bills … months later because of the postal system. The (bills) would have time stamps on them and would get them two months or so later. Sometimes that mail got shredded and they were returned back to the people who sent it. I do not understand why people would think it is our fault. The authority is just a group of people running the system,” he expressed.

Barrett then went on to explain the process the authority goes through every month to send bills in a timely manner.

The sewer authority mails their bills through postcards to save on expenses with mailing. Certain customers have suggested ways of mailing the bills via an envolope but it would cost the authority more to go about it that way.

“The postcards go out on this date, they are mailed on this date, and once they are in the mail system, they are in the mail system, period,” he said. “They say our (the authority) system (for billing) is flawed but no one can tell us how it is flawed or how to improve it. There have been suggestions like taking a bill and putting it in an envelope and mailing it, but that would ultimately cost more money.”

There are options that customers can consider in order to alleviate the possibility of getting a late fee due to the late delivery of bills. According to Barrett, customers of the authority may pay their fees a month in advance in order to beat the mail system.

They may also bring their payments to the office or drop them off in an outside, secured box.

“There should not be any late fees because of the remedies we have to counter them. I even had to pay a late fee once after forgetting to pay it on time, it happens. We have people paying the late fees so we cannot go along and say, ‘well you do not have to pay your late fee again,'” Barrett said.

He said the auditors do not recommend that any of this should be done and attorneys never tell them to do that due to the involvement of legal ramifications.

“People do not understand that if they do not pay their late fees, the bill will add up more and more. It will come to a point where we may have to shut their water off to get them to pay or other legal action could be taken,” he warned. “We have to do our best to run it with the least amount of expense like everybody. When you have other people picking up the tab where others are not paying up, that is not right.”

Barrett wished to convey to those who are harassing the authority that threats are not going to solve the issues at hand.

Staff and the authority in general are on alert, he said.

“First of all, the threats are unnecessary and will not solve anything. Secondly, there are remedies like I’ve said, so customers need to take them. Third, we do not want our secretaries to take the brunt of it. They are taking all of the flack for all of this. People can come in and talk civilly,” he urged. “However, they (customers) end up not doing that.”

Of the threats being received by the authority, Barrett gave an example.

“One person came to the office and got pretty belligerent with one of the secretaries. Luckily he left and did not do anything irrational. The doors are locked due to COVID but that guy jerked on the door hard enough and he got pretty nasty. You do not want someone else getting hurt because you got angry. All because of a stupid late fee and it really is not that much. When bills are not paid, you pay a small late fee,” he said.

Barrett asked for customers to work with the authority.

“We want to make our customers aware in the friendliest way possible while getting the point across. The biggest thing is that there are ways of not getting these late fees and not one person is doing them. Some people pay by the whole year but most do not do that. If you pay one month ahead, there should be no worry,” he conveyed.

“We are asking that you take some action on your part to avoid late fees. We are also asking that respect be shown to our employees when calling or writing because they are not at fault for the late fees. If you choose to pay your bill without the bill, just include your customer number on the check to ensure proper processing,” he added.