Recently, at the November Board of Supervisors meeting, concerns were brought forward regarding a list of property owners’ unpaid water bills. The cost of the unpaid water bills totaled $63,122.07 and included properties in the Hamlet of Guilford Water District, Town of Guilford, Mount Upton Water District, Town of Guilford and South New Berlin Water District and the Village of New Berlin within the Town of New Berlin Water District. The vote was passed to re-levy charges to property owners’ 2025 land taxes. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

NORWICH — Recently, at the November Board of Supervisors meeting, concerns were brought forward regarding a lengthy list of property owners’ unpaid water bills.

The cost of the unpaid water bills totals $63,122.07 and includes properties in the Hamlet of Guilford Water District, Town of Guilford, Mount Upton Water District, Town of Guilford and South New Berlin Water District and the Village of New Berlin within the Town of New Berlin Water District.

Board members deferred to the Town Law provisions of Section 198 Subdivision 3 (d) that allows unpaid water bills to be charged with property owners’ 2025 land taxes.

Not all supervisors were in agreement to re-levy the charges, yet all voted in favor with no opposition.

“This is very frustrating,” said Smyrna Town Supervisor Michael Khoury. “Every year we do this, we have a long list of water bills and the county takes on responsibility of making them whole and then goes back to the original customer and try to say, we need to take care of this.”

“This is a very long list of people who are choosing not to pay. Is this the best model; do other counties do the exact same thing?' he asked. “Is there a history that somebody said it's everyone's right to have water so we're going to make sure we have it?”