Thousands of Toledo water customers received multiple bills on the same day with little explanation from the public utilities department, which The Blade estimates cost the city more than $60,000 extra in postage alone.

Judy Bashforth, of Springfield Township, said she received four letters from the department in the mail on one day last week.

“Three were credits and one was a bill,” Ms. Bashforth told The Blade.

An explanation in the letters stated there was an issue with the Lucas County sewer winter average calculation.

“Your bills from September to March may have been canceled and rebilled due to an issue with the Lucas County sewer winter average calculation. The bills have been corrected to include the Lucas County sewer winter average,” the letters state.

A Facebook page called Springfield Township and the Village of Holland showed more than 80 comments from people who also received bills on the same day. All were puzzled.

“Honestly, I don’t understand it. Nobody else seems to, either,” said Ms. Bashforth, who has her monthly bills automatically deducted by the public utilities department. “Is there anything I’m supposed to do?”

She was surprised to receive so many bills on the same day.

“They couldn’t tell me in one letter? Couldn’t it have been combined into one mailing? What a waste of taxpayer money,” she said.

Jim Mizerny of Monclova Township also had questions after getting multiple water bills in the mail on Saturday.

“One of the letters I had opened first stated I had been overcharged and gave me a $200 credit. I thought, ‘Wow. This is great.’ As I opened each bill, the credit got less and less until it dropped to $1.51,” he said.

An attempt to get an explanation from the public utilities department was unsuccessful after an automated phone system stated he was 43rd in the queue, he said.

“I couldn’t get through to the water department because of the long waiting time,” he said.

Public utilities officials did not return messages to The Blade for comment on Monday. A spokesman for the city of Toledo in an email stated that a bill correction was issued for 39,000 customers, resulting in individual corrected bills for December, January, February, and March.

“These updated bills show the amount credited to each resident’s account. No action is required from residents,” the spokesman said in the email. There was no comment on the city’s cost of mailing multiple bills to individuals on the same day.

​Mail Works II, a bulk mailing company in Toledo, said the cost of postage to mail a presorted first-class letter under one ounce within Lucas County is 54.5 cents per letter. It would have cost an estimated $21,255 in postage for the public utilities department to mail just one bill to 39,000 customers. To mail three extra letters would have cost the city an estimated $63,765.

The Toledo Department of Public Utilities last fall launched a new and improved water customer online portal that promised full access to water accounts anytime. The city promoted the upgrade as a streamlined, user-friendly experience to customers for managing bills, making payments, and reviewing accounts.

Water customers would have greater control and flexibility over managing their accounts, officials said. The portal was to provide full transparency into water usage, offering new ways to manage water consumption and set notifications.

First Published April 14, 2025, 9:58 p.m.