The city of Leesville is prepared to work with residents who may struggle next month with larger-than-expected water bills after a computer virus disrupted the water department’s normal billing cycle.
During Monday’s City Council meeting, City Administrator Patti Larney said a software virus that took down the city’s servers earlier this month had prevented meters from being read during March. To get back on track, she said, meters will be read next week for March’s billing and then one week later for April.
As a result, the bills residents will receive will cover a six-week span of water use rather than the customary one month.
Mayor Rick Allen urged the city’s water department to take into consideration the strain that having to pay a larger-than-expected bill may have on some of the city’s households and asked that they work with families whose bills may go into delinquent status.
“This is something that was our fault, it was our software, and not something at the fault of our residents,” Allen said.
“It will be an amount they have not been accustomed to paying, and we don’t know what that may do to some families’ budgets. I do not like to cut off people’s water, and I want to do everything possible to avoid that.”
Larney said no residents would have their water lines turned off, but that charges would still have to be assessed on accounts for late payments or bills that aren’t paid in full.
According to Larney, on March 6 a virus caused the city’s servers to crash. The servers were temporarily restored until crashing again on March 14. The final crash erased the city’s water bill information and halted all online bill payments until last week.
Larney said Monday that the city’s servers are up and running securely and that all account information has been restored.
from American Press: Your Best News And Advertising Source - Home http://ift.tt/2oguUWn
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment