Arnold stepping up collection efforts on overdue sewage, garbage bills

Arnold residents who are not paying their garbage and sewage bills are placing a burden on the city, which is stepping up its efforts to collect.

The city was owed about $250,000 from delinquent accounts when it took over billing for the services from Pennsylvania Municipal Service, commonly known as PAMS, at the start of this year. It so far has managed to collect about $40,000 of that debt, leaving it due about $210,000, city Manager Mario Bellavia said.

Some delinquent accounts go back as far as 2016, Bellavia said. Older bills are on abandoned properties that will never be paid.

Being owed that much money means Arnold has a lot less to spend on other services and needs, such as road paving, Mayor Joe Bia said. That money also could go a long way toward the city covering overages in its $4.5 million budget for police, street maintenance and fuel, Bellavia said.

With the collection of those bills now in-house at City Hall, Bellavia said, the city wants to work with its residents to recover what is owed and keep them current. That has included setting up payment plans and directing them to programs such as the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, which offers grants to help families pay overdue water and sewage bills.

Residents need to communicate with the city and not try to avoid the situation, Bellavia said.

“We want to build relationships with our people here,” Bellavia said. “We’re not the enemy.”

Arnold has about 2,100 residential garbage accounts and the same number of sewage accounts, Bellavia said. Each category has about 300 delinquent accounts.

The city collects garbage itself.

Sewage services are provided by the Municipal Sanitary Authority of the City of New Kensington, which Arnold pays quarterly, Bellavia said. The city’s annual cost is between $930,000 and $950,000.

The city’s bills to residents are based on water usage, with that information provided by the Municipal Authority of the City of New Kensington.

PAMS had handled billing for Arnold since 2012. Its last bills went out at the end of December and were due by Feb. 1, after which the city took over, Bellavia said.

To bolster its efforts, City Council hired Pam Poston as a full-time financial clerk for sewage and garbage billing and collections. She will be paid $17 per hour.

Poston, who started Monday, had experience in Wyoming as a treasurer and accounts receivable clerk before moving to the area.

While collecting the bills is a lot of work, Bellavia said, it costs too much to outsource.

“It’s saving the city cost by hiring somebody to do the job,” Bellavia said. “We have the ability to generate more timely revenue by having collections done in-house.”

Bellavia said the majority of residents, 85%, pay their bills. “It’s that other 15% that have driven it to this point,” he said.

To tackle delinquent accounts, Bellavia said the city will not allow property sales to close or rental inspections to pass unless all bills are current and will place liens on properties.

The city also will soon begin having water shut off to homes with delinquent sewage accounts, Bellavia said. Such shutoffs, for which the city has an agreement with the water authority, had been suspended during the covid pandemic.

On top of what they already owe, those who have their service shut off will face further costs for the shutoff and to have the service turned back on.

“Now, going forward as we’re looking into all these delinquencies, many of them are the same people over and over again. They will be the ones that will get their shutoffs,” Bellavia said. “They will be warned. They’ll get plenty of notice. If they just refuse to cooperate or even get in touch with us, their water will be shut off.”

Contacting the city and getting caught up on billing “is the only answer,” he said. “Just not paying for year after year, those days are over now.”

Bellavia said he would like to see the city get to less than 5% delinquent.

“We need everybody to be invested in the community, not just certain folks,” Bia said.