Carthage, IL – Carthage residents will soon pay a fee if they write the city a bad check.
Mayor Jim Nightingale says the city has never had a policy charging residents for writing a bad check for their water and sewer bills. "We never had the problem, but it has got worse," says Nightingale.
Nightingale says now, residents will pay $25.00 for any returned check. "We make them bring cash or a cashiers check in if we've had a bad check," says Nightingale. "It's a hassle for us. We've had some problems."
"I don't know how many we are getting a month," says Nightingale. "But I know it's increased considerably from what we've had in the past few years. We very seldom ever had one." Nightingale says last month there were at least four people who wrote a bad check for their water and sewer bill.
"We want to be sure people don't write us a bad check," says Nightingale. "Right now they can write us a bad check and it doesn't cost them a thing."
Nightingale feels the economy and job losses are to blame for the increase in the number of bad checks being written to the city.