Nixa Utilities customers report higher bills amidst purchase of water company - KY3

Nixa Utilities customers report higher bills amidst purchase of water company

NIXA, Mo. (KY3) - You may have noticed a spike in your utility bills if you live just outside Nixa’s city limits.

The issues come after Nixa Utilities purchased RDE Water Company, and in the process, they say they noticed some issues in how RDE was charging its customers. Nixa Utilities purchased RDE and has begun the process of absorbing their customers, but in the process, they noticed some discrepancies in some of RDE’s paperwork.

As it turns out, some weren’t getting charged enough, and Nixa Utilities says it has started to back-charge customers, so if you see a high bill after paying less than $30 in months prior, that could be the issue.

“Having to pay, you know, 10-20 times more than what our bills are supposed to be is a little frustrating because everybody wants their money,” said Nixa Utilities customer Selene Gellen.

Gellen is a mother of three. She loves spending time with her friends on their cul-de-sac. But recently, she’s noticed something troubling: her utility bill is much higher than it was just months ago.

“It started in May, whenever Nixa utilities took over for RDE,” said Gellen. “RDE had always charged me less than $25 for our bill. And then our first bill from Nixa utilities was $107.”

And it just kept climbing.

“I thought, okay, maybe it’s new, like they’re just getting everything together,” said Gellen. “And then our next bill was $117. And then it went up to $167. And I was like, okay, something’s not right. And then we got the next bill that they wanted $244 for. And that’s when I went up there and had them try to help me.”

Nixa Utilities also noticed that some customers were charged the minimum at RDE, around $25 a month. But now Nixa Utilities is back charging people to get the money they missed out on, in addition to Nixa’s 1.5x charge to get water to the city limits.

Nixa Utilities officials say it’s normal for people to see an increase like this.

“Everybody does the same thing,” said Nixa Utilities director Doug Colvin. “But they’re not paying more because we have to go out and fix the system out. We’ve absorbed that into our budget with our system. So we were treating it just like our system.”

But for Selene, she just wants answers before she has to move

“I hope that next utilities is able to take a step back and realize that there are multiple people in the city that are having these issues,” said Gellen. “And with the cost of everything. It’s not right at all.”

If you’re having issues with your utility bill, reach out to Nixa Utilities so that they can try and figure out any of the issues you’re seeing. If you can’t pay the bill all at once, there are payment plans you can use to help mitigate the costs.

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