ST. PAUL - After a one week delay, Town of St. Paul residents received their utility bills on Jan. 25.
The delay was one that frustrated Town of St. Paul CAO Steven Jeffery. During the Jan. 22 Town council meeting, Jeffery offered an update on the situation, saying he felt the two companies the Town works with to get the information together and complete the utility bill run had not made the municipality a priority.
He noted that the water meter reading software is at its end of life, which is alarming since the company is not sure if it can support the Town.
The danger of the software not working is that large swings in water usage, for example, could be missed, causing frustration - an expenses - for both residents and the municipality.
Jeffery noted that staff at the Town put a lot of time into trying to make things work, but received little response and little support from the companies involved.
"The technicians at the company are not even sure how to properly support us anymore and have been testing things on their end," according to information presented to council.
"We were proactive and started the process to avoid the situation we now face, back at the beginning of November as soon as it was discovered we had an issue with the file transfer," reads the information provided to council.
The payment deadline for utilities has been extended a week into February to account for the delay, which means the Town will be without the expected income for about a week longer than anticipated.
This is the second consecutive utility bill run that has been delayed. The September/October bill run was delayed by a few days.
