A report in the Altoona Mirror indicates that the Altoona Water Authority has agreed to hire an out of town law firm to collect on those large overdue bills. The authority is contracting with the Portnoff Law Associates to make the collections. The law firm will apparently use an 8 step approach to collect past due bills, and of course there will be fees attached to the collection process. Those fees will in addition to collections of the outstanding bill balances that are due. The report says that the only time the authority will use the collection firm, is when all local options to collect have failed. Also, customers that are a little behind on their bills will not see the collections firm. Customers who are at least 90 days behind and owe $1000 will be targeted.
