The COVID-19 pandemic has brought hardship to people across the nation. And while unemployment benefits have helped keep people afloat, area residents are still struggling.
Citizens are still making the decision to pay an overdue bill or putting food on the table and/or getting their medication.
Due to the hardships that West Virginians were facing, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced on October 21, 2020, that he was allotting $25 million of CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security) Act funds to help people pay their past due utility bills. This money would be distributed to public service districts around the state who would then send applications to customers who qualified for aid.
The utilities covered by this program include electricity, natural gas, water and sewer. The unpaid amounts needed to be from any time between March 1 and July 31, 2020. Once a customer received an application, it needed to be promptly filled out and sent back. The deadline for returned applications was November 12, 2020.
At the time of the governor’s announcement, the chairman of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia, Charlotte Lane said that more than 133,000 residential utility customers had unpaid bills within the specified time.
The city of Ronceverte was approved for a total of $25,520.16 in funds from the West Virginia Utility Assistance Program.
These funds have already been applied to the accounts of residential customers who applied by the due date and were eligible for aid, according to Ronceverte City Administrator Pamela Mentz. The time frames and amounts applied to each account were dictated by the guidelines set by the program based on the amount owed within the appropriate time frame.
According to Mentz, the city was able to help about 42 customers with the funds from the West Virginia Utility Assistance Program.
To ensure that they could help as many customers as possible, they provided the applications, put notices in with bills for two months, and even called some customers to see if they needed assistance with applying.
The city expressed its gratitude for being able to help its residents ease some of the financial burden caused by the pandemic.
“We’re really proud, I’m really proud that we could do this,” Mentz said,
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