Apache Junction Water District hiring collection agency

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

The Apache Junction Water District is hiring its first agency to assist with collections of unpaid water bills.

The district is hiring Valley Collection Services LLC through a professional service agreement, Water District Director Mike Loggins said during the water board’s Sept. 16 meeting.

“The district has never had a collection service in the past to go after those delinquent bills,” he said. “We’re not talking about the ones that are past due of $10... We’re talking about people who have left the district and closed out their accounts and left an outstanding balance with us of $100, $200 and moved away and we may never see them again. We may get lucky and they move back again and we can charge them those fees that they left us holding the bucket on.”

The collection agency would go after anyone who left without paying and charge a fee based on a percentage of the amount, Loggins said.

“They will charge a fee — I believe it’s 7% to 12% — to collect those fees for us, but at least we are getting some of those costs that were left out there. In the past it hasn’t been very much, but as we are a growing district it will grow,” he said. “At least we’re being good stewards to our customers going after those debts that people have left us with and trying to collect some of those things.”

The fee is 12.5% according to page 1 of the agreement, Board member Bambi Johnson said.

The collection agency will be used to collect any monies not paid starting this fiscal year, July 1, Loggins said.

“So anything that’s owed now we’re not going to turn into collection, we’re just going to write-off,” Johnson said.

“Correct. That’s what the practice has been in the past that we’ve done for the district. We wrote it off the last fiscal year,” Loggins said.

The water district in the past averaged $15,000 a year in unpaid customer bills, which he said is less than 1% of its gross revenue.

“It’s not a huge amount that we have been writing off but it is an amount and that’s why we want to start collecting some of these. And it’s going to continue to grow as we get additional customers that walk away,” he said.

Water district

The Apache Junction water district supplies well water (groundwater) pumped from the Eastern Salt River Sub-Basin Aquifer, which flows southwesterly under Apache Junction and its surrounding areas. The groundwater is treated for arsenic removal where necessary, disinfected with chlorine, pumped into storage tanks and blended with Colorado River (surface) water.

The surface water is transported through the Central Arizona Project canal system and filtered and purified at the Superstition Area Water Plant before being introduced into the distribution system.

The water district can also receive treated CAP water from the city of Mesa through an interconnect for a backup supply of water, if needed.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines, https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist/.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.