Many Gamerco utility users owe money

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Gamerco residents are once again falling behind ontheir utility payments, and city officials are getting worried. They're hoping a tougher stance will turn things around.

When the city convinced the McKinley County DistrictCourt to let it bill and collect on all the town's utility accounts over a year ago, officials knew that bringing down the $170,000 residents owed would not be easy. By November, steady payments had brought the town's debt down to $99,000. It was slower going than Administrative Services Director Larry Binkley was hoping for, but it was progress nonetheless.

"They had a really good payment history for the first 10, 11 months," said City Attorney George Kozeliski.

Then things started to slow down. Since November, Gamerco residents have paid only $3,000 on their old debt. That still leaves $96,000, well over half the original amount.

What that shows, said Kozeliski, is that Gamerco residents aren't keeping up with their current bills either.

"They're not paying their old debt," Binkley said, "but they're not even paying their current debt."

Back in November, Binkley said, Gamerco's current debt the debt the town has accumulated since the city took over added up to less than $50,000. As of May 1, that figure has climbed to $61,000.

"We're worried now that in a month or two (Gamerco) could go back into the negative," said Kozeliski.

Adding up everything that goes into running the accounts, Binkley said the city isn't even covering its administrative costs any more.

"We're losing ground in terms of what we're collecting" he said.

But the city has a few ideas about how to regain that ground.

Binkley said the city needs to get more aggressive with Gamerco customers by cutting off their water or electricity as soon as they let their utility accounts fall more than 60 days behind. With summer just around the corner, he noted, the city needn't worry about -leaving people without heat, a consideration that keeps it from shutting them off during the winter.

Kozeliski, mean while, is pursuing the matter for the city on the legal end. He was in court last Thursday, Friday and Monday going after 30 of Gamerco's most delinquent customers, at least one of whom alone owes more than $5,000. According to court documents, the 30 owe the city over $67,000 collectively.

Kozeliski said the 30 face three options: pay the city what they owe; challenge the amount in court; ignore the city's letters and let the judge issue a determination for whatever amount the city says they owe.

The last three days in court were only for pre-trial hearings. If the city and the delinquent customer can't reach an agreement, Kozeliski will be asking for a trial date. And once the city is finished with these 30, another 30 are on its list.

Since the mid-1970s the city has been furnishing the town of over 400 residents with water and wastewater services and allowing an independent water and sanitation district bill customers, collect payment, and pay the city back. But when the district fell $170,000 behind in early 2006, the court let the city take over until the debt was repaid.