By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WINONA LAKE — Issues with Winona Lake’s utility billing was still an issue for residents at the Winona Lake Town Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Resident Brad Butler questioned what was going on with the utility bills.

He believes he got charged extra. January got skipped and Butler said he got charged for two months in February and again later that same month for another month for utilities.

Last month, resident Jerry Nelson told the Winona Lake Town Council he had not received his sewer and trash bills on Jan. 23 and they’re usually due by the 28th.

Tuesday, Clerk-Treasurer Heather James said there has been an issue with the software system and she has been trying to spend a lot of time with the software company, Keystone, trying to figure out what happened.

James said the Automated Clearing House payments are the issue. So what happened was, in the fall, “(Keystone) pulled the October/November payments. And then, the next day they prepared December’s. And then we started getting multiple calls, people coming into the office saying they received a bill they all ready paid” and the system was showing some residents had paid a bill when they hadn’t.

That’s when the clerk-treasurer’s office contacted Keystone and was told they were working on the issue.

There were also issues of when information was pulled.

James said the issue wasn’t a double charge or anything like that if people were charged for two months, “the right amount of payments were pulled in a short amount of time.”

Butler said the bills are usually taken out monthly.

James said she knew the bills were usually billed monthly and they are working to get back on the regular schedule. She said, for most people, it does look the situation was been corrected “with one payment pulling two month’s worth” of payments. She said this is an issue that has taken a lot of time and attention. James said a lot of phone calls were made to Keystone to get the issue taken care of it.

Butler said he believed he was a month ahead in payments due to the amount of charges he’s seen taken out of his account in February.

Town attorney Adam Turner said if Butler wanted to bring in all of his documents, he could. If he did, Turner was sure the clerk-treasurer’s office would be willing to go over it with him and make to sure if it has been overdrawn, it gets corrected.

Earlier in the meeting, the council approved waiving late fees over the last couple months for utility bills residents may have seen.
James said there are still various issues with the town’s utilities software they are continuing to work on.

Due to the issues, she requested the council waive any late fees residents may have seen from October 2023 to February 2024.
In other business, the council:

• Heard an update about the town’s annual financial report. James said she has been working on the financial report. It is not completed yet, but was told she can submit the report and continue to make any needed corrections until the town’s next audit.

• Denied a request by Merrywood Trailer Court to waive $3,000 to $4,000 in wastewater late fees. The request was tabled in December so James could get more information on the request. James said she did not find anything to warrant waiving the late fees.

• Approved for the Winona Lake Fire Department to apply for a $5,000 50/50 matching grant through the Department of Natural Resources for equipment like gloves and boots. DNR would pay for $2,500 and the town would pay the remaining $2,500.

• Heard about the following Winona Happenings: Wine About the Winter in the Village, 2 to 6 p.m. Feb. 24; Village Madness Passport in the Village, entire month of March; a free community pancake breakfast at the community center, 7 to 10 a.m., March 7; Leprechaun Trap Contest, March 17; and Cereal Domino Run at Lakeland Christian Academy, 3 p.m. March 25.

• Approved establishing a fund for a grant through DNR for Limitless Park. James said for auditing purposes, the State Board of Accounts would like the town to establish a fund for each grant or fundraiser the town does.

• Approved shade sail replacement at Limitless Park at $15,797.25.

• Approved a request to replace the pavilion concrete pad and sidewalk at Limitless Park for $12,856.

The Park Department received a grant from the Grossnickle Foundation for $10,000 to install a second picnic shelter on the west end of the SplashPad. The foundation will be paying for the shelter part of the project