PETERSBURG, Va. -- Petersburg utility bills now have new information in bold print, warning about service interruption for delinquent accounts.
"You'll see a section on there, where we talk about cut offs, that probably hasn't been on there for over a year," says Daniel Harrison, the Interim Public Utilities Director for the City of Petersburg.
The City stopped cutting off water due to delinquency more than a year ago when utility bills either stopped being mailed or water bills were extraordinarily high.
That begins changing in October.
"Now that we have the water billing system back under control, we need to enforce cutoffs," says Harrison.
Several Petersburg Businesses are showing up with delinquent bills, including the Croaker Spot Restaurant, which owes more than $14,000 and Sal's Pizza and Neptune's Restaurant each owe more than $2,000 each.
Both the owners of Sal's and Neptune's said they are disputing their water bill.
The owner of Sal's says he is going to the water billing department on Tuesday to see what he can work out.
And that is exactly what Harrison says home and business owners should do.
"If you owe anything for your water bill, just come to the water billing department," Harrison said. "If you come talk with us, especially residents, we have a payment plan. Citizens or businesses that haven't paid, haven't contacted us, and that owe us, those are who we are actively pursuing cut off".
We reached out to the owner of Croaker Spot, to see if they are disputing their bill as well, but have not heard back.
