The city council learned at their Jan. 16 meeting that a business’s utilities account has been transferred to the previous owners, but the outstanding utility balance will still be the responsibility of the most recent owners who incurred the charges.
The Flandreau business was several months behind on its utility payments, as well as other services to the city.
At a December meeting, council members discussed how to proceed with disconnection and termination of the city utility services to the business.
Because of a current city ordinance, the business will remain anonymous, but anyone interested can request the information from the city.
The business owed utility payments dating back to August in the amount of $3,776.58 and additional payments for city services totaling $710.
City officials sent the owner a disconnect notice and itemized statement of what is owed for each month.
“Because this is a business account, I was reluctant to take severe action in terms of shutting it off,” City Administrator Don Whitman said. “If it’s a business, they need to stay in business to be able to pay the bills.”
At the same meeting, the option of transferring the utility account to the previous owners was discussed in order to prevent the account from continuing to accumulate bills.
However, after months of no payments, City Attorney Paul Lewis advised that the disconnect notice be sent as the first step.
By transferring the account to a different name, no more bills will be added under the current owner’s name. He will still have to pay the balance of nearly $5,000.
The council also discussed and agreed to file a small claim against the current owner to assure the bills owed to the city will be paid.
In other action, the city council approved for Whitman to request three bids options for paving West Street from First Ave. to Bridge Ave: concrete, black top and chip seal.
Approved an airport pavement maintenance project totaling $17,769.44 of which the federal government will pay $15,992.50 and the city will pay $888.47.
Authorized the mayor to sign paperwork for grant reimbursement for an invoice for airport engineering from Helms & Associates for their work on the airport layout plan totaling $9,964.80.
