Officials hope to share resources to assist the community
By Barb Pert Templeton
At a recent city commission meeting Marine City officials got a brief presentation, dubbed a “utility billing payment arrangement discussion” from City Manager Michael Reaves.
At the Nov. 6 meeting Reaves told the commission that one of the things they’ve talked about in regards to the water and sewer rate changes – expected to bring a 56% increase in quarterly bills starting in January – was discussing the impact that would have on citizens. He said officials had indicated to him that they wanted to talk about how to educate everyone so they are aware of the situation.
The county has a help card they distribute that offers residents all kinds of assistance with everything from food to utility bills.
“We’ve had multiple meetings where we’ve talked about it, we put information on our website, we held a town hall, we’ve had multiple times available to view power points and there’s a ton of information about how these rates were constructed,” Reaves said. “One area of concern also was the impact upon our residents; I don’t want to say they’ll grow accustom to it but we don’t want to exasperate any of their financial issues.”
Another thing official wanted to talk about was the policy the city has in regards to late payments. Reaves said there’s not a lot the city can do with the policy because you can’t forgive somebody’s water bill, it’s just not allowed.
“We don’t have the authority to just wipe out people’s water bills, you can’t do that,” Reaves said. “We have a late payment plan with this policy we could look at some initial flexibility in that but I looked more so on providing resources to the community that would not only help with their water and utility bills but food and housing assistance and all kinds of different things.”
A resource card from the county that provides information about SNAP benefits and food banks was something Reaves passed along to the commission after he got it from Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche and he said they can in-turn pass it along to their residents.
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves shared how the city is working to prepare residents for a large increase in their water and sewer bills.
“We’d like to be able to provide those types of resources to our residents but you also wanted to have the conversation about is there anything else we can do until our residents do adjust because it is a change,” Reaves said. “As an example, today it’s $10 and tomorrow it’s $20, so what do I change in order to make the $20 payment?”
Reaves suggested the officials kick it around and see what they think and at the same time have the staff, the people who deal with the issue all the time with residents, consider it as well. After that, everyone can formulate some ideas about how to approach it, he added.
“We can bring it back at the next meeting, you can email me and I’m open to suggestion or comments,” Reaves said. “Either way what I told you was I’d bring it back to you so you have an opportunity to think about it.”
“We don’t have the authority to just wipe out people’s water bills; you can’t do that.”
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves
The mayor said she would get an updated card from the county with places to get assistance. None of the members of the commission offered any discussion about the topic after Reaves’ presentation.
Yet along those lines, Commission Sean O’Brien used his commissioner privilege at the end of the recent meeting to encourage anyone being hit hard via the pausing of SNAP or any other benefits including the impending increase in the city water bills to contact the city.
“These resource cards and other tools we have we’re happy to share and put those in your hands as well,” O’Brien said.
