It's costlier if it gets this far.
SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove’s solicitor also has become its bill collector of last resort, and the township Board of Commissioners earlier this month approved a fee structure that ensures whoever catches up with delinquents is adequately compensated.
Commissioners on June 1 (2009), during their regular twice-monthly meeting, unanimously approved a township ordinance that sets fees which can be collected by attorneys working on Lower Pottsgrove’s behalf in attempting to collect delinquent taxes, liens, fines, penalties or other past due payments.
Having done that, the board immediately turned to Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway and his law firm, Wells Hoffman Holloway and Stauffer of Pottstown, and asked them to pursue a portfolio of outstanding amounts.
“Kurt, you collect us some money here,” board President Bruce Foltz said as he officially signed the ordinance into law. “We’ll do our best,” Holloway responded.
The law allows any attorneys – not just Holloway – assigned by the township for collection duties to charge those being pursued $125 per hour spent in the process. The additional costs would “pass through” and be tacked onto the amounts being collected, and would not be directly paid by Lower Pottsgrove, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne said.
Township resident James Prendergast, 1304 Walnut Ridge Estates, during an earlier meeting on the matter pressed Holloway to estimate how much time on average an attorney might spend to collect an outstanding account. “I’d only be guessing, and I won’t do that,” Holloway responded, noting that some of those who owe reply immediately to an attorney’s letter, and some don’t.
Prendergast, who is running for election to the board in November, later indicated outside the meeting he considered the $125 hourly fee excessive compared to debt collection costs of firms other than lawyers.
Hawthorne reported the list of amounts owed to the township now totals tens of thousands of dollars, with its own collection attempts yielding only limited success.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners’ June 1 meeting):
- Chief’s Concern: Daytime DUIs
- New Equipment Highlights Fire Report
- State OKs Police Consolidation Study
- Keeping Their Eyes On The Pump
- Bateman Trail Cut Into Open Space
- Township Reconsiders Charitable Donations
- PennDOT Set For Meeting On Bridge Work
Photo by Clipart.com
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