The familiar, monthly red-and-blue postcard bill from the Perry Water Works will be replaced starting next week by a new billing form arriving in an envelope and including a return envelope for payment.
The new utility bill is letter size and sent along with a return envelope for customer convenience. The new form is similar to billing forms issued by other utilities, such as the gas, electricity, telephone and cable television companies, with both billing and return envelopes featuring glassine windows through which the addressee’s name will be visible.
The Perry Water Works Board of Trustees voted last summer to enter into a three-year contract with Mail Services, an automated mail processing company in Urbandale. The company handles 9 million pieces of mail annually, according to Mail Services Account Executive Todd Clausen.
The cost for the mailing service will be 54.7 cents per item, according to Clausen, which includes the cost of postage. The per-item cost is only slightly higher than what Perry’s water utility now pays to process its own bills, according to Perry Water Works Accounting and Billing Manager Pamela Ballard.
The new billing forms will not cause a rise in water bills, said Perry Water Works Superintendent Hank Schmidt. Benefits of the envelope form of billing include permitting additional enclosures to be added, such as notices from the city and the annual water-quality report, Schmidt said. The privacy of water consumers will also gain from the change, he said.
Customers should return the top portion of the bill with payment.
