Pay trash bill or lose water service in Hoffman Estates

Hoffman Estates residents who are extremely overdue in paying their garbage pickup bills now risk having their water turned off.

On Monday the finance committee approved an amendment in a contract between the village and Groot Industries, the company that provides residential solid waste services for the village.

The amendment hands over the responsibility of collecting a bill is past due by more than 150 days to the village.

Residents who are more than 90 days late will receive a notice from the village stating that failure to pay before the account is 150 days late will result in the balance being placed on their water bill.

The village will then have the ability to start payment plans in an effort to keep water services uninterrupted.

An outline of the amendment that was given to committee members Monday stated the village’s plan is “to give those with significant past due balances an extended time frame to pay any past due balances prior to sending a water shut off notice.”

Village Manager Jim Norris said while he doesn’t expect the village to shut off water very often, the change at least gives the village the ability to turn it off “for those (residents) who refuse to pay, refuse to make any arrangements to pay and completely ignore us.”

The reasoning behind the amendment stems from Groot having a difficult time collecting overdue amounts due to the recession. Recently the village has been helping the company by sending past-due notices to residents.

However, because a potion of the funds collected from each bimonthly bill is used to pay the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, the village has had to use its solid waste fund to cover late payments. Norris and Assistant Corporation Counsel Patricia Cross researched how other municipalities address the issue and found that many bill for waste directly through water bills.

When the past due amounts are paid, the village portion of the past due necessary to pay the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County will be taken first. The remaining amount will be split equally between the village and Groot.