Town of Dodson cracks down on water, sewer fees

The Dodson Town Council is going to be more strictly enforcing their monthly water and sewer fees following a very expensive and difficult week of finding outside help to fix a broken shutoff valve.

Last week, the Town of Dodson was forced to turn off a customer’s water due to non-payment. In the process of turning the shutoff valve back on after the payment was made, the valve broke, in part because of an aged water system.

“This was not the customer’s fault,” Mayor Cole said. “But, having to continue to turn these valves off and on is not conducive to a stable system. Our water and sewer funds are miniscule compared to other towns around us and we cannot continue to have these huge repair bills.”

In the latest instance, Mayor Cole said that a contractor was brought in from Havre after many attempts to hire one locally for the repair work which included bringing two machines and three laborers.

The Dodson Town Council is going to start enforcing timely payments of water and sewer bills, an ordinance which has been in effect for several years. The ordinance states the Town of Dodson will no longer allow any bills to go unpaid for longer than two months. Customers will have two weeks after the second notice until their water is shut off and to have it turned back on, the account must be made current and there will be an additional $25 fee.

The Town of Dodson is willing to work with any individuals facing financial hardships. If you have any questions or need to discuss payments, please call any member of the council, the mayor or Town Clerk CeeDee Wilke.