Revised Authority Policy Could Save New Customers Thousands

Revised Authority Policy Could Save New Customers Thousands

April 27, 2015

4/27/2015

​Some customers may find a more money in their pocket as a result of the April 21, 2015 Bedford Regional Water Authority (“Authority”) board meeting. The board approved changes to a few policies that reduces fire suppression fees for new customers and decreases the turnaround time for deposit refunds.

“We are constantly listening to customers’ concerns and reviewing our policies to see if there is a way to make our processes easier on our customers. We think these policy changes are a positive step in that direction,” said Brian Key, Authority Executive Director.

Since the Authority began operating in 2013, board members and staff have worked with change requests about policies from its governing bodies and customers. In particular, fire suppression facility fees and deposits have been discussed at length. At the April board meeting substantial changes were made to lessen the financial burden on customers in regards to fire suppression fees and deposit refunds.

2.01 Rate Information: The changes to this policy will effectively reduce the facility fee charges for customers that have large meters solely for the purpose of fire protection. The facility fee chart is shown on page three of the Rate policy. This change in policy can effectively save businesses looking to locate to the Bedford area thousands of dollars in fire suppression facility fees. Potential savings could be from $68,700 to $275,000.

2.12 Deposit: The board had said previously that the Authority should expedite the return of deposits as much as possible. Changes were made to this policy to allow for that, and also to allow for collecting deposits from customers that are not in good standing. The Authority is in the process of catching up with refunding old deposits and aims to return deposits to customers after twelve months of being in good standing.

These policies are effective July 1, 2015. Other changes in policies were made; however, these policies were more changing policies to match the Code of Virginia or internal policies that do not effect customers as much as the above policies.