Prichard Church hit with $7,000 water bill after being closed for a year

PRICHARD, Ala (WPMI) — More problems with Prichard Water. We've reported in the past about people receiving excessively high water bills and now a local church is dealing with the same problem. People at that church are scratching their heads, wondering why the bill is so high.

"I can't understand how you could do a church like this," says Church Administrator, Janelle Staten.

Church service inside of Pathway to Destiny Ministries in Prichard hasn't happened since October of 2021, due to roofing repairs.

But on October 13th, 2022, they received a bill from the Prichard Water Board and Sewer System. The total? $7,591.22.

"Normally our bill is around $50.49 per month but we haven't been here since September/October of last year," says Staten.

Staten tells me they've been having church services in Fairhope instead of the Prichard location. The church in Prichard paid their water bill up until May 2022. She says the church disconnected their water service back in June 2022.

"They finally did disconnect it. The bill was $1,700 and something is what they said to restore it,” says Staten. “Which I can't understand how got from $50 a month to $1,700 and then we get this bill in October for over $7,000. That doesn't make sense."

While Staten and I were talking I asked her if the high bill could be because of a potential water leak.

"There's not a leak in the pipes. We had that fixed already, she says. "It used to be a hole over here where they came and dug up the ground and they went in and fixed whatever pipes that needed to be fixed."

With scandals hitting the Prichard Water Board, Staten says the high bill could be because of those problems.

"It has to be because why would we owe $7,000? You’re making us pay for something else that your people have done. That's not right,” she says. "I just hope they get it together and do what’s right."

Because of the holiday I was unable to get in touch with the Prichard Water Board, but we'll continue to investigate this issue.