MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — The City of Middletown said it will resume utility billing in December after a cybersecurity incident paused various city services earlier this year.
In August, the city posted on social media, saying several city services were shut down due to the incident. Those services included police records, public records, income tax, the health department and utility billing.
The city did not specify what the "cybersecurity incident" specifically was, but they said it disrupted several functions and they were working with local, state and federal agencies to resolve it.
Residents still had the option to pay their utility bills online through InvoiceCloud with a credit card fee. The city said those who could not pay online would not have any utilities shut off.
In a social media post Thursday, Middletown said they are continuing to make progress restoring systems and shared several updates regarding utility bills specifically.
The post said residents will receive utility bills again starting in December. Initial bills will be estimated based on residents' utility use during this time period last year, plus 25% to "cover a portion of service charges from the past several months when billing systems were down," according to the city.
The city later posted an update to their social media clarifying they are increasing the estimated usage by 25% on the bills to "help with your balance owed for the missed billings from the past several months." The update said it is not an additional fee, but "an increase in estimated water used." The update also said if you've made any payments since August, they've already been applied to your account and will be reflected in the upcoming billing cycle.
Middletown said flat-fee utility charges will be "back-billed in full" and return to normal in January.
The city's post said billing based on estimated usage will continue until they can resume meter readings and traditional billing. They did not provide an exact timeline for when that would be.
When the city can resume traditional billing, they said exact amounts owed by residents for usage during the course of the billing outage will be determined and owed over the course of the next six billing cycles to "minimize challenges for residents." The 25% increase will not be added when traditional billing is resumed, according to the city's update.
The post also addressed delinquent accounts. The city said they paused utility shutoffs, which will now be resumed for accounts that were delinquent before the cybersecurity incident.
Those with delinquent accounts will see a separate notice about how to avoid utility shutoffs, the post said.
Middletown said there will be more details on billing in the coming weeks, and urged anyone with questions or in need of assistance to contact the Utility Billing Office.
"We are committed to working with you to minimize disruptions or concerns, and we will continue to provide residents with updates as we move forward," the post said.
