BOYLE – Village of Boyle councillors are taking a bit off the top of an overloaded water bill after a broken hose gave a local family an unwelcome surprise after the Christmas holidays.
During their Feb. 5 meeting, councillors unanimously agreed to charge the water at cost, as well as waive the extra sewer charges to help a Third Avenue household after a broken hose caused the water usage to rise from seven cubic metres to 91.
“This is one of those situations where council has historically zeroed out the water costs,” said CAO Warren Griffin.
The rise in water usage occurred from Dec. 24 to 30, after the family was out of town for the holidays. The regular usage for the household was only seven cubes, so the bill jumping to $661 was a surprise for the residents.
“We were away for that week and unfortunately didn’t see it until we got home on Sunday,” said the residents, whose names were removed from the letter in the Village of Boyle’s agenda package.
Councillors, who’ve previously agreed they don’t want the municipality to unfairly profit from the misfortune of its residents in cases like this, praised the tracking administration for helping make this process easier.
“It’s nice that we’re able to pinpoint these areas so that we can actually do this without affecting proper taxes or anything. If it was our old way it would have been tough to figure out when it was used or how it was used,” said Mayor Colin Derko.
The water leak was the second billing issue councillors dealt with that night. In addition to the resident’s concern, the quintet wrote off an outstanding debt stemming from a 2022 diesel spill that the village had to clean up.
“We tried to get a debt collector to track them and that spent a couple of years with no success, and the longer we go the less we are likely to receive anything on this one,” said Griffin.
The bill, which cost the village $13,797 before it started accruing fees, was unable to be collected by the municipality since the individual didn’t own any property in the village.
“At this point, we’re shrugging our shoulders unfortunately and asking to write this off, I don’t see any way to collect.”
