Bluffton water and sewer customers are asking questions about their February utility bills received in the mail this week.

Here’s the answer:

According to the village, the bill received this week cover approximately Jan. 16 to Feb. 15. It represents the actual reading of individual meters during that period.

The previous month’s bill, covering approximately Dec. 13 to Jan. 16 was an “estimate.” The reason for estimating that bill was due to heavy snow on the ground, which kept meter readers from obtaining proper meter readings.

In some cases last month’s bill was lower than the current bill, which caused some additional confusion among customers.

This was the first time in nearly three winters that utility bills were estimated due to the amount of snow on the ground.

Tied to the information above, the water-sewer surcharge was removed at the beginning of 2018, which causes further confusion with utility customers.