Very limited e-alert options are available to Christiansburg subscribers, 19 months after a long awaited and somewhat costly web revamp.
Now that a Public Information Officer is onboard and additional Information Technology support has been hired, will these tools be properly used?
One recent e-alert was relative to June 30 water and sewer billing. Saying it was "complimentary" implies over-and-above rather than standard service to citizens:
"Waterbills were mailed on 07/01/2010. They are due on the 25th of this month. If you do not receive your bill within seven (7) business days, please contact our office at (540) 382-9519. Note: Failure to receive notification or bill DOES NOT exempt you from any penalties or additional charges."
How can you contact this office if you don't get the e-alert or your bill? Where's the PR media-blitz to let people know they can use online banking to pay this bill (or that the Town is spending another $50,000 or so, so you can pay 14% interest by using your credit cards instead of cash?). That's part of the "EFT now available for payment" message on the statements -- but people outside of the banking industry probably don't know what the acronym represents. And do you really want to authorize Christiansburg (or anyone) to remove any amount, anytime from your bank account?
This doesn't say whether the recently increased water and sewer rates were applied, nor that they should be budgeted for going forward by households and business. No encouraging words on how to reduce consumption. No query on whether residents are willing to pay for the costs associated with a monthly, rather than bi-monthly, billing as discussed by Council (additional outsourcing vendor fees, paper and envelopes, general accounting/staff time to post payments, and postage). Splitting the bill may be easier for some folks to fork over, but the rates don't change regardless of the billing cycle.
And it keeps getting steadily more expensive, both in user fees and how much is being shifted from General Fund taxes to subsidize these operations.
Can any Council member state with certainty these costs have not been impacted by Christiansburg's rate of development? Can anyone articulate what the system's (water and sewer) total capacity is (including infiltration factors), how much is currently being utilized or has been promised, and what percent remains available -- without additional, costly system upgrades?