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City Water/Sewer:
New Home Owner(s):
You will need to fill out the Water/Sewer Billing Responsibility Form (in .pdf format) and return the original copy to Rice City Hall during normal business hours or you can drop it off in the outside drop box. We can not accept faxes or copies, original signatures are necessary.
Note: The Water/Sewer bill MUST BE PAID IN FULL before the name of the new owner can be put on the account.
Water/Sewer Billing Procedures
Update Jan.2009
Rice City Council has set up a water/sewer billing process to deal with delinquent bills.
At 9am on the 26th of each month all payments made at the drop box or in the mail are posted. If the 26th falls on a weekend or holiday, the payments will be processed at 9am the next business day. An account balance report is run; anyone under a $5.00 balance will not be charged a late fee. Late fees are calculated. No more payments are put in the billing system until after the 1st working day of the following month.
The third to the last working day of each month the Utilities personal will go around and collect readings. Bills are generated; any that are delinquent (30-day, 60-day) are pulled from the group. 30-day and 60-day past due bills are mailed with a letter. All regular bills are mailed. It’s our goal to have the bills in the homes by the first-third day of each month.
30 Day Past Due
If the bill is 30 days past due (owe this month and last month’s charges) a letter is sent with the billing card reminding the home owner of our policy. There will be a late charge on this bill.
Payment plans can be made by the Water Commission if there is a problem they cannot pay the whole bill. If they are put on payment plan be sure to mark the no late fee area. Once bill is paid in full makes sure to take the no late fee mark off.
60 Days Past Due
If the bill is over 30 days and now 60 days past due a “Proposed Disconnection” notice is sent. City residents are served by the Police Dept., Out of the City residents are sent a certified letter. At this point there is no payment plan option, the bill needs to be paid in full or get disconnected. Shut-off accounts are reported on a separate Excel spreadsheet each month. Police Officer signs and dates delivery.
Disconnection takes place 14 days from notice; coordinated with the Police Dept & Utilities personal. The Water/Sewer Billing Clerk will give the Utilities personal a listing of proposed shut-offs the Thursday prior. The Utilities personal will go to the residence and mark the shut-off and put a notice in the door either the Thursday or Friday prior to shut-off. All shut-offs will be done prior to 4pm on the appropriate day.
No partial payments will be accepted at this point. The balance must be paid in full or the water will be shut-off.
If a resident pays a shut-off balance with a check and the check is returned marked “Non-Sufficient Funds” the water will be immediately shut-off until a cash payment for the entire amount plus penalties and/or late fees are paid in full.
Once water is turned off, charge late fees, MN testing fee, and sewer monthly until water is turned back on.
© City of Rice, MN
A past with pride ... a future with promise
City of Rice Utilities
Electric
MN Power800-228-4966Power Outage 800-307-6937Natural Gas
Excel Energy 800-895-499924-Hour Emergency 800-895-2999Telephone/Cable TV and
Internet
Benton Co-op 320-393-2115Utility Digging
Gopher One State 800-252-1166Water/Sewer Payments Are Due By The 25th of Every Month
Water/Sewer Commission
Meetings are held "as needed". Contact Marie Weinand at
(320) 393-3080
to setup a meeting.
Members:
Michael "Mitch" Fiedler
Marie Weinand
Mark Sauer
Kevin Popp
Wayne Moen
