WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – At Monday’s agenda brief, Councilman Charlie Rivenbark asked the City Council if it would be willing to change the way water bills were collected in order to provide relief to over 500 customers of the CFPUA who have had their water turned off.

A CFPUA water bill is set up with four separate charges. The CFPUA collects money for water, sewer, storm water and trash. Money collected for stome water and trash is then sent to the City of Wilmington. If your water bill is $100 and you only pay $50, that money first goes to pay off trash and storm water fees and not water or sewer bills, allowing water service to be turned off.

Rivenbark asked if the city would be willing to do a one-time restructuring of the billing system that would allow customers’ money to go towards water bills first. The City also discussed a one-time donation to the CFPUA Assist-Neighbors Helping Neighbors prgram with the condition that money would only be used to pay water bills and not be used to pay customers’ late fees.

Representatives from the CFPUA say they would agree to talk about it. They added that as an authority, they do not have the ability to waive someone’s water bills, they can only waive fines. The two sides agreed to schedule a meeting between the CFPUA, the City, and the County to discuss the best way to resolve this issue.

Rivenbark said the meeting was a good idea, but added that it did not address the fact that there are over 500 people who currently do not have water.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) – Happy New Year’s Day and welcome to 2012!

Now that a new year has started, we want to know what your resolutions are going to be. Are you vowing to lose weight or trying to quit a bad habit? Maybe you want to fix your finances or spend more time with your family.

Whatever you chose, we want to hear about it. Tell us your resolution in the comment section below this post.

Also, make sure you check out these stories in order to remember 2011:

• WECT Communities: Most viewed stories of 2011
• A year of memorable moments in NC comes to an end
• SLIDESHOW: 2011 Celebrity Deaths
• Year in review: Top videos of 2011
• SLIDESHOW: Most admired people of 2011
• MTYT: New Year’s resolutions
• SLIDESHOW: Year in review, the top stories of 2011

Copyright 2011 WECT. All rights reserved.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) – Did you know that you can watch video clips from WECT News on your smart phone?

It’s simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Download the free app, if you haven’t already. It’s available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry smart phones. To find out how, click here.
2. Go to the bottom of the WECT app homepage and slide the arrow up to show the hidden menu bar.
3.  Select video and choose the kind of video you want to watch—top video, weather video, or sports video.

Copyright 2011 WECT. All rights reserved.