Town of Winchendon Residents Facing Violation Fees for Water Meter Non-compliance
The Town of Winchendon posted this on its website on August 20th: “Water & Sewer Billing Notice – Malfunctioning Water Meters. Over the past three years, the DPW has contacted affected customers by mail, phone, and other outreach to schedule meter replacements at no cost to the property owner. To encourage replacement of these meters and avoid water service shutoffs, a quarterly violation fee of $75 – $150 is being assessed to affected accounts that have not scheduled a replacement after multiple notifications. This fee will appear on the next quarterly bill in October.
Customers will have 45 days from date of bill to have the meter replaced before the fees are assessed. If the meter has been replaced within that time frame, violation fees paid from that most recent bill will be credited back to the customer’s next bill. If you received this fee, please contact the DPW to schedule your free meter replacement. Our goal is to get these remaining meters replaced so that customers can return to accurate meter readings and billing.”
The 1 Day of Interest Debaucle
In earlier development, Winchendon residents were inadvertently billed 1 day of interest and Winchendon posted: “In the latest water/sewer bill run, a mistake was made on the actual printed bills which caused one day of interest to appear on every bill. This appeared on bills even where no prior balance was due. The amount of interest varies from $.01 to $.15. If you have no prior balance you can ignore this interest amount and pay current charges. If you already paid it, it will be credited on your next bill. We apologize for the error and the confusion.”