By Juliet Kadzviti

Senior with $6,000 water bill has her day in council

Jul 26, 2016 | 12:27 PM

A Prince Albert senior who has been sitting with an almost $6,000 water bill finally had a chance to tell city staff how she feels.

Nellie Souter told council, Monday, July 25 she has lived in her house for over ten years and saw lots of water bill estimations but nothing as excessive as the current bill.

“I flipped out, because never in my life have I ever had a high bill like that, and I’ve lived in this town since 1964,” she said.

Council seemed sympathetic to her plight with councillor Martin Ring saying the bill didn’t make sense.

“When I see a water bill that’s rounded up to $6,000 that is a lot of water. That’s not going to be just three quarters of an inch in the basement, that’s going to fill up the basement plus. It’ll be pouring out the windows going out into the yard,” he said.

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Coun. Don Cody agreed, adding something was “radically wrong” with the situation, and added it expanded beyond just Souter’s bill.

“Had we started to do what we planned to do a while ago, which is billing once a month, these things would not happen,” he said.

He suggested her late charges of almost $600 be dropped altogether.

“I do not agree we should pester this lady for this money, we should go out and do the job that we are supposed to do, we should reduce the bill and I’m sure the lady will pay something,” Cody said.

Mayor Greg Dionne said Nellie’s bill was divided with two parts water usage and a corresponding sewer charge.

“The water part is $2,938.13 and it’s still ridiculous,” Souter said.

Dionne said he wanted to clarify it was for both, and said “it’s just not $6,000 worth of water.”

Council decided to suspend the late charges until a decision can be made on what to do with Souter’s water bill. Her request will be forwarded to financial services for further information.

Souter said she felt “pretty good” about the council meeting, even though she would still have to pay some of the money.

“I’m somewhat satisfied, I won’t know until the total outcome comes of it. At least they listened to what I had to say,” she said.

jkadzviti@panow.com

On Twitter: @julietkadzviti