When stormwater enterprise bills began showing up in the mail... a lot of Colorado Springs homeowners had questions. Don Luttrell was among them. A photo enclosed with his bill showed he was being charged for his driveway which he thought was wrong.
Don says, "It showed that my driveway was one of the areas that was impervious. And of course... I knew it was gravel."
Any man-made surface which allows stormwater to runs off is considered impervious. In other words... you're charged for it.
But since Don's driveway is gravel he thought that area should have been deducted.
Don says "Three phone calls and two months later... I still had nothing resolved."
That's when Don made a Call for Action to our volunteer Tracy.
Don says, "It's still very frustrating that I had to go through all that hassle trying to get it resolved... and just one call from you and it was all taken care of."
Ken Sampley, the Stormwater Enterprise Manager says Don's calls should've been escalated to his staff and addressed right away, but it somehow got lost in the shuffle.
He hopes that won't deter others from calling if they have similar issues. Sampley says the city's happy to make changes if calculations based on their aerial photos are wrong.
Sampley, says, "Sometimes there are shadows on some of the aerial photographs and it's hard to tell. Also, sometimes things have changed since the time the aerial photograph was taken."
Don's quarterly bill dropped from ten dollars to $6.45. If you're wondering about your charge, don't be afraid to call the city's customer service center.
Plus, the city's now offering a 5 percent discount if you pay your bill for the entire year at one time.