Joliet plans for first water shutoffs in two years

Joliet is preparing to renew water shut-offs for unpaid bills for the first time since they were suspended at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shut-offs will resume in May or June, city Finance Director James Ghedotte said.

Amounts owed before water is shut off will be higher than what was set before the pandemic, Ghedotte said.

“Because we haven’t shut off water two years, we’ll probably start in the $1,000 range,” he said.

Typically, water customers face shut-offs when they reach $300 in unpaid bills.

That limit likely will be raised given the amount of unpaid bills the city expects to face and the amounts individuals may owe. Ghedotte said one issue is just having sufficient city staff to deal with what likely will be higher than usual shut-off situations.

The city still is trying to get a grip on the total number of bills that went unpaid since the moratorium on shut-offs started in March 2020.

“We’re getting those figures right now,” Ghedotte said. “We’re going to set parameters based on how much people owe.”

In April 2021, the city reported having $2.6 million in unpaid water bills at least 120 days old. At that time, the city was hearing from landlords who were getting stuck with water bills that were not paid by tenants.

The moratorium on water shut-offs was one of a number of measures taken by the city in March 2020 at the onset of the pandemic aimed at providing relief to residents as unemployment numbers were surging.