After a pause of more than 16 months, the City of Longmont will resume utility disconnections for non-payment on July 26. This affects customers who have been past due for more than 36 days. Those customers will have the opportunity to work out a payment plan with utility staff to avoid a shutoff.

“As our community steadily recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and returns to normal operations, we want to make sure that those residents who have been unable to pay their bills contact us to make arrangements,” City Manager Harold Dominguez said. “These have been extraordinary circumstances, and we want to help everyone get back up to date with their bills with as little disruption as possible.”

Letters to those past-due customers will begin to be sent July 10. Those who cannot pay the full balance immediately are invited to call Utility Billing at 303-651-8664 to make arrangements.

About 3,000 customers currently have bills that are 37 days past due or longer, including some that predate the pandemic.

Longmont first suspended shutoffs in March 2020 in response to the pandemic. Since that time, a number of Colorado communities and utilities have resumed disconnections, including Loveland (July 2020), Xcel Energy (September 2020), Colorado Springs (October 2020), and Fort Collins (November 2020).

Free energy efficiency help is also available for those trying to lower future utility bills. The City of Longmont works with Energy Outreach Colorado to offer the Colorado Affordable Residential Energy (CARE) program, which provides free home energy assessments and a number of free home energy upgrades to income-qualified residents. More information can be found on Energy Outreach’s website.