Biloxi residents and businesses that normally receive their monthly water bills on the 20th of the month won’t be seeing that bill arrive until near the end of the month because of an issue with the firm that prints and mails the bills.
The customers — which account for 5,000 of the city’s 13,000 water customers — will still have the normal 15 days to pay the bill.
“The company that prints and mails the bills discontinued this service at the eleventh hour, so other arrangements had to be made,” said Public Works Director Richard Sullivan. “We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but we’re pushing back the due date to make sure our customers have the same amount of time to pay the bill.”
The city sends its monthly water bills in three cycles — typically on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month, with respective due dates on the 25th, 5th and 15th. Only the cycle on the 20th — the largest of the three cycles — should be impacted by the change.
The city converted from mass billing to cycled billing about a decade ago to provide customers a more timely bill.
Said Sullivan: “In the past, you might have had a leak and not known about it for a month. With this cycled billing, there’s usually not much time between when your meter is read and when your bill is arrives, so if there’s a problem, you will know about it right away.”
