Senator Smith:

I am writing to you as president of the Washington Township Regional Sewage District, a district located in Washington Township, Clark County.

It has come to my attention that HB1117 will soon be considered by the Senate and there are constituencies which may wish to amend the bill to prevent Regional Sewage Districts (RSD) from filing liens on past due accounts.  Our residents are served by Washington Township water Corporation, a co-op.  The RSD has, on many occasions, approach the water corp and requested their cooperation to disconnect water service from customers who are in arrears on their sewer bill.  They have consistently refused to do this as they are uncertain of its legality.  That leaves us with two options to collect past due accounts: we can file a lien on the property or, after notifying the County Health Department, disconnect the sewer line serving the property.  We have regularly filed liens to collect past due accounts and this method has been quite effective.  Our bylaws permit us to use the disconnect for persistent offenders but we have not, to this date, done so as it is quite expensive for the property owner and will also result in the County Health Department immediately condemning the property.

If language is added to HB1117 to prevent us filing liens, we will have to resort to disconnection to enforce collections.  This is a severe unintended consequence which I don’t think the Senate wishes to see happen.  I therefore urge you to vote against any amendment which would prohibit the RSD from filing liens. An amendment which specifically allows cooperation between water corporations and RSDs to disconnect water service to enforce payment of past due sewer bills, however, would be quite helpful.

Thank you.

Ronald L Repp
Washington Township Regional Sewage District