After temporarily suspending late penalties and reducing service cutoffs, the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority has resumed doing both of those.
Late fees were waived beginning in March, but resumed April 21, water authority controller Bonnie Dalrymple told board members Mike Gibbs, Billy Rowe, Tony Whitaker, Hubert Parker and Don Callihan during a teleconference board meeting held Tuesday, April 28.
Per a statement from the water authority: “All efforts will be made to collect past due accounts to avoid disruption of service. If we do not receive any response, we are disconnecting customers.”
“I’m really proud of our public,” Dalrymple told board members. “There have only been a handful that we had to force to communicate with us. There hasn’t been anyone that we have not been able to work something out with as far as getting their bills paid in these hard times. I’m proud that our customers were willing to work through this with us.”
New customer service procedures adopted by the water authority during the COVID-19 health crisis are still in place. They include closing the Progress Road building’s lobby to the public until further notice and using only the building’s drive-thru window and after-hours deposit box for accepting payments and contracts. Preferred forms of payment are check or money order, but cash is still accepted.
“We still have the lobby closed and our business hours are the same,” Dalrymple said. “We do take cash, we just don’t give back change. Any overpayments are applied to their account. They are still putting the cash in an envelope and we give them a receipt.”
Dalrymple also noted various workplace procedures implemented by the water authority following the first health emergency order issued by Gov. Brian Kemp in March. Those include:
﹣ Screening and evaluating employees who exhibit signs of illness.
﹣ Requiring employees who exhibit signs of illness to not report to work or to seek medical attention.
﹣ Enhanced workplace sanitation and providing disinfectant products for employees.
﹣ Required hand washing and use of hand sanitizer.
﹣ Providing personal protective equipment.
﹣ Prohibiting gatherings of employees during work hours.
﹣ Implementing social distancing.
﹣ Staggering shifts for all possible employees.
﹣ Holding meetings virtually whenever possible.
﹣ Discouraging employees from using other workers’ phones, desks and offices.