CARRBORO -- OWASA said Wednesday that it made an error in bills sent on Oct. 16 to 500 -- or about 2 percent -- of its customers. Water use by the 500 non-residential customers in early October was incorrectly charged at the peak seasonal water rate of $7.09 instead of the new off-peak seasonal rate of $3.73, which went into effect on Oct. 1.
OWASA's next bill for these customers will include a credit to correct their balances. The dollar amounts of the errors are limited because they involve charges for one to six days of water use from Oct. 1 until meters were read through Oct. 6.
OWASA bills for water and sewer service about once a month, and pro-rates bills when there is a change in rates, as occurred on Oct. 1. For example, if a customer is billed for service from Sept. 6 through a meter reading on Oct. 6, the old rates apply to service from Sept. 6-30, and new rates apply to service from Oct. 1-6.
The affected non-residential customers are in Carrboro, Southern Village and downtown Chapel Hill.
Individually metered residential customers, who pay increasing block water conservation rates, are not affected.
"We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers, and we have made process changes to prevent recurrence of this problem," said Jane Showerman, OWASA's customer service manager.
Unborn victims focus of event
CHAPEL HILL -- Three families will be speaking at 11 a.m. Saturday at Chapel Hill Public Library, 100 Library Drive, in support of "The Unborn Victims of Violence" Act, which would bring these families justice by recognizing, in law, the unborn child as a second victim when a pregnant woman and her unborn baby are murdered.
The law would allow the state to prosecute for two murders instead of just one. The laws of 35 other states recognize the unborn child as a second victim. To learn more about unborn victims of violence laws, visit: www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html
Among the speakers will be Effie Steele, the mother of murder victim Ebony Robinson and her unborn son, Elijah. Robinson was 21 when she was shot and murdered in Hillsborough. Her son would have been born a few weeks later. They were laid to rest in two separate caskets.
Also speaking will be Michele Dye, the mother of Lucy Johnson and grandmother to the 15-week-old unborn baby she was carrying. Johnson was raped, shot twice in the back of the head, and her house was set on fire to cover-up the crime in July 2008.
Kevin Blaine, the father of Jennifer ("Jenna") Nielsen, will be the third speaker. Nielsen was 8¬
