City plans utility blitz

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The city has collected another $143,000 from Gallup Joint Utility customers behind on their accounts since ending a month-long "blitz" in October.

And according to Assistant City Manager Larry Binkley, the city will be conducting another month-long blitz beginning in early April.

The city implemented its first blitz in recent memory last September in an effort to bring down the nearly $700,000 in debt its utility customers had built up, an 80 percent increase compared to that time the year before. Binkley said he was disappointed by the $137,000 the month-long campaign brought it the city had hoped for more than twice that but added that it was a good first step.

The $143,000 the city has collected since then brings the total amount of money city utility customers now owe to $640,000.

Binkley attributes the gain to at least three factors.

"One," he said, "the weather's been a little milder than normal."

That's allowed the city to be more aggressive in turning off the power to utility customers who have ignored repeated warnings to pay off months of debt, a last resort that convinces most customers to act.

Two, Binkley said the city has stepped up its normal, day-to-day pursuit of delinquent customers since the blitz, thanks in part to City Clerk Patricia Holland, who's paid special attention to bringing down the debt.

The assistant city manager also attributed at least some of the gain to the Independent's decision during the blitz to publish the names of all utility customers who owed the city money, but added that its exact affect could not be measured.

The city's eventual goal, he said, was to bring the debt down to the $150,000 neighborhood, a more "normal" figure for a utility system the size of Gallup's. There are some 6,000 water accounts and 10,300 electricity accounts within the city.

The more customers owe the city, the more officials say they have to consider raising everyone's utility rates to make up the loss. Ironically, 2003's utility rate increases probably had a lot to do with the growing debt that prompted the first blitz.

"We don't want to cut people off, but we also can't provide free utilities," Binkley said at the time.