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The Filer Township Water Department was the Michigan Rural Water Association’s Water Taste Test winner in 2019 with the best tasting water in the State of Michigan. We take pride in making sure our water system is extremely well maintained to provide our residents with the best water available. Filer Township has 2 water storage towers, and 3 well houses. The water supply is tested for contaminants on a regular basis in compliance with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. See ‘Information’ below for a list of water quality reports.
Contact Josh Newsom – Water Operator
Water shut-offs, meter installation, and reads, maintenance, mark water lines for Miss-Digs, cross-connections, backflow preventers, required sampling and treatments, and hydrant flushing. Please call if you have questions regarding rusty water, low pressure, shut-offs, new service install, and EMERGENCIES AFTER HOURS (Call 231-835-1231).
Contact Tammi Schimke – Water/Sewer Billing Clerk
Payments, water account changes and adding new residents, billing questions, final reads, scheduling, non-payment shut-off notices, and addressing delinquent bills to be assessed on the tax roll.
Currently, we do not take Credit/Debit cards. Payments can be made anytime by mail, in-person, or at the brown drop box outside the Township Hall parking lot.
Congratulations on your new property! The title company has probably already called by now to get a final read for the water service before the purchase and the previous property owner should pay that amount at closing. Once that payment is made, we can transfer the account to your name. You can call anytime though to give the information for the new account. If you closed already and there wasn’t a final read taken, the new owner is responsible for the balance on the account, we do not contact the previous owners to collect for the final reads.
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You may call the water department at (231) 723-3138 ext. 2 or email filertownship@filertwpmi.gov and provide the name on the account, billing address if different from the property address, and a working phone number. We bill quarterly. Bills are usually received at the beginning of the month in January, April, July, and October.
New businesses that will need a meter installed, please call our water operator at 231-723-3138 ext. 8 for details.
If you will be a renter and you want the water to be in the tenant’s name, I need the property owner to call and set this up with the information above not the tenant.
All unpaid water on the account from the previous tenant is the responsibility of the landlord to pay regardless of who used it. The landlord will need to collect from the tenant, not the water department.
The charges for water and sewer bills remain with the property. If left unpaid, the charges will be added to the property owner’s property taxes as an assessment.
If any smart meters break due to the fault of the occupant or property owner, the property owner must pay for the replacement. This includes not properly draining the water system for the winter and not heating the area where the meter resides and it freezes and breaks. The radio antenna on the meter is very sensitive and can break if not careful, please also watch pets around the meters.
Charter Township of Filer determined that there was a need to charge its customers for sewer and/or water system facility maintenance in order to maintain quality customer service. The “Ready to Serve” fee is charged whether or not sewer/water is used by the consumer and is calculated based on the size of your service line to the property.
This fee is for general maintenance and maintaining our water towers, water treatment, wells and pipes, infrastructure and management, testing, etc… All customers connected to the system (pipe from the water main at the street to the house) are charged this fee on either a monthly or quarterly basis. The “Ready to Serve” charges are assessed in addition to the actual water consumed. Even though you may not be metered by the system, you are still connected through the line that serves your property.
The Filer Township Water Department must “be ready” at all times to serve the needs of ALL customers regardless of their individual consumption. The management and maintenance of the sewer/water system are not lessened by individual usage. The requirement to meet the FULL USE of these systems must be available at all times for everyone.