The United States Postal Service's elimination of the Lima processing facility is causing problems with the Village of Bluffton.
Jamie Mehaffie, village administrator, told council on Nov. 22 that problems began when mail started going to Toledo instead of Lima for processing.
The specific problem centers on mail payments from customers paying online. Those payments, at no fault of the utility customers, are notoriously late from the online payment source.
An automatic late fees kicks in against the utility customer on those late payments. Mehaffie noted that the online payments, now routed through Toledo, seldom have postmarks on the envelopes. So, the village can't determine when "the check was put in the mail."
By village ordinance, the utility department charges late fees based on the postmark date, which further complicates the issue.
Mehaffie said that the problem is time consuming for the village and very frustrating for online utility payment customer. Some online customers have two months of late fee charged against them, he said.
To help resolve the problem, council allowed the village administrator to put a forgiveness policy in place for online late fee utility payments.
Health care costs the Village of Bluffton are estimated to increase by as much as 49 percent in 2011. That translates to nearly an almost $38,000 increase in costs to the village budget. The increase was discussed Monday.
In other council action, the Spring Street bridge, while not open, should be open sometime in the next month. Leaf pick-up in the village will be completed by Thanksgiving.
Council approved a usage policy for the community room on the town hall third floor.
Council approved closing Main Street for the Saturday, Nov. 27, Blaze of Lights. East Elm Street at the town hall to the alley behind the town hall, will be closed at noon.
Main Street from the town hall to Church and Cherry will close at 3 p.m. Also closed at 3 p.m. until the conclusion of the Blaze parade, are Church from Main to the alley at CNB and Cherry from Main to the alley at Common Grounds.
Vine Street from Main to the alley at Jeanne's Kitchen will be closed at 3 p.m. Pony rides will be set up on Vine Street. All streets will reopen at 9 p.m.
