Declining Debts at WM Utility
West Memphis Utility Department seeing less in write-offs
news@theeveningtimes.com
After seeing record write-offs five years ago, officials with the West Memphis Utility Department launched a concerted effort to reduce the bad debt dollars and improve collections.
Those efforts have paid off dramatically, as bad debt has plummeted at the West Memphis Utility Department, according to the most recent data.
Utility commissioners wrote-off $220,342 during the board’s regular monthly meeting in August meeting, marking a 10-year low.
The much smaller figure reflected a drop from the 2014 peak of $807,471.
The utility conducts shutoffs daily each weekday unless the weather is too hot or too cold for those struggling with past due bills, a move that prevented customers in severe arrears from running up a higher tab and leaving the city holding the bill.
The effort made the dollar amount owed for each shut-off lower and drove down the bad debt. This was the second straight year write-offs were below the industry average of one percent of the $30 million total business.
