Sauk Village threatens to shut off water if man doesn't pay $5k bill
UPDATE: Sauk Village officials apologize, call pastor's $5k water bill a mistake
A south suburban man says he's got eight days to pay up or his family's water will be cut off.
A five-thousand-dollar bill caught him completely by surprise, and he's not happy with the response from Sauk Village officials either.
“My average bill was a hundred and thirty-eight dollars, sometimes it would go to two hundred. and those were estimates at the time,” said Derrick Williams.
Pastor Derrick Williams has lived in Sauk Village for almost two decades. He says he's always paid his utility bills on time. And that's why last month, Pastor Williams was shocked when his monthly water bill showed he owed more than five thousand.
“I immediately wrote a letter to the mayor, as well as the trustees,” Williams said.
The letter to Mayor Derrick Burgess explained that Williams' water meter had been replaced twice in recent years because of malfunctions, which may have caused the mistake. Williams said he had several conversations with the village's finance director, nothing was settled, and now he’s received a shut off notice, giving him until December 12th to pay up or have his water cut off.
“I can't pay five thousand dollars for a water bill. I don't know anyone that pays five thousand dollars for a water bill,” Williams said.
At the Sauk Village Municipal Center, FOX 32 asked whether anyone from the Water Department --or any other department --could talk about the five-thousand-dollar water bill. And we were told that only the ,ayor could deal with it and he wasn't available.
“It's funny, you see 'em when they're running for office. They're all everywhere. You throw a rock, you hit 'em. but when the little man so to speak need 'em, you can't hear from 'em,” Williams said.
Williams was recently widowed, has a son with autism and also a daughter. He says they obviously can't manage without water.
FOX 32 called, emailed and visited the Sauk Village Municipal Center, but never heard back from the mayor or anyone else.