The City of Salem Utilities Committee met for close to two hours at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory for its regular monthly meeting Wednesday night at 6:15 p.m. The most notable item discussed was the implementation of the Exceleron program, which includes prepay possibilities.
The City of Salem signed a contract May 4 last year with Exceleron Software Inc., a Dallas (Texas) based company. Which was the culmination of discussions going back for a couple of years that were eclipsed by billing and metering problems on utility bills.
Last month, the utilities committee held a special meeting to discuss the options available to the city regarding the Exceleron program. At which time, as reported in the Sept. 27 edition of The Salem News, committee members and city officials met via video call with Craig Hutson from Exceleron to discuss how Salem utility customers will be able to utilize prepay on their utility bills. The app will also help residents keep an eye on their utility usage throughout each year, month, week or even throughout the day.
There are a handful of test accounts a number of elected officials and utility committee members are enrolled in as a test run for the prepay program. Committee member Catherine Dent spoke highly of how useful the app is. Temporary city administrator Sally Burbridge said that she hopes to have the program available for use by the public in the next couple of months.
Wednesday around half a dozen Salem residents attended the meeting and posed several thoughtful questions pertaining to the software as well as the city’s spending.
After thorough discussion of the Exceleron software, the committee shifted to discussing credit card fees on billing, which according to Salem City Clerk Tammy Koller, has been the city’s policy since it started processing credit cards. In FY 2021-22 the city paid for nearly $32,000 worth of credit card fees on utility bills paid by Salem residents. The question at hand was whether the city would continue footing the bill for these fees or if it would place that cost on customers.
