Melissa Howie moved to Billings Heights in September, so she was shocked to receive a water bill from the City of Billings in January. For over 60 years, the County Water District of Billings Heights has purchased water from the city to distribute to customers. Heights residents still pay the City of Billings for sewer, garbage and storm drain. Watch the video of this story below: City of Billings, Heights Water District considering consolidationI was really confused about this bill, Howie said on Tuesday. "I called in December after two months of service and said, "Hey, I've never received a trash bill or a sewer bill, what's going on?" And they (the city) said, "Well, it's all part of the billing drama. You're just gonna have to be patient." So I said, "Okay, great, no problem." And then didn't get anything, nothing came through until last week I got a bill for $257." According to the City of Billings Public Works Director Debi Meling, this wasn't a software error but a human-made mistake. When we did the initial account setup, it was just clicked as a city resident versus a Heights Water District city resident city utility user, Meling said. "They're (the options are) right next to each other and it was simple human error that just did the account set up incorrectly. It wasn't a billing software issue. It was a set-up issue." Howie received a new bill in the mail, with a new amount due of $113.67. "So, we did credit that account and now it's set up appropriately," Meling said. But in the future, Howie and the roughly 6,000 other Heights water customers could get city bills for water, too, as the Heights Water District and the City of Billings consider consolidating. It is premature to say that it is happening. We are under the consideration whether we would consolidate or not, said the Heights Water District board president Doug Kary. "We finally were able to get a majority to say, we can look at it. Not saying that we're going to do it, saying that we can look at it. Because you can't make any decisions really without knowing the facts." According to Kary, in 2023 the Montana Legislature changed a law to allow the water district to engage in the study. Before then, consolidating was never an option. "Before this point in time, we weren't allowed to consolidate. We weren't allowed-- there was no way to do away with the district, period. Even if you went bankrupt, the district would have to still exist. And so we are exploring right now that what was granted in 2023 by the Montana State Legislature," Kary said. "It came to be that the board wanted to see what consolidation would look like." The study is being conducted by a third party and started last week. "There's always been the, "hey, should it be looked at? Hey, is there some benefit to our citizens?" You know, that sort of thing. But, I would say there's always been just enough lack of information about each other's system and what it would really mean that there's never, as far as I know, in the last 20 years, I don't think there's ever been a serious conversation about it," Meling said. "It is not a sure thing. It's certainly not something the city is saying, absolutely, we want to do this because we're looking out for our citizens. That's our job, is to look out for our citizens."The study is set to finish in June. "We don't know everything that the water district does and we don't know how compatible it is with what the city does or how consistent, I should say, with what the city does. So this is truly a study that both groups just are participating in to say, what does this look like?" Meling said. "Is there any compatibility here? You know, is it good for the citizens of Billings? Is it good for the current ratepayers? Is it good for the Heights Water District citizens? There's been zero decisions made." Kary said the board is not going to deny that the City of Billings has had recent billing challenges. The city has fielded dozens of complaints in recent months since it changed its billing system, with some users complaining they received monthly bills for hundreds more than expected. The city has hired an auditing firm to determine what happened."It's something that happened and really does not have any bearing on the issue of consolidation. Right now, we buy our water from the city, so we do get billed for it," Kary said. "We watch our bills, and we have to pass that on to the customers."The decision will ultimately be left up to the Heights customers, according to Kary. "There has been no decisions made. Once we get all the facts, if the board thinks it looks plausible, we would go to the voters, our customers, and ask for their permission to do this," Kary said. Customers such as Howie, who enjoys being a Heights water customer. "Right now you can call the Heights Water District, you get on the phone with them right away, they answer, they're polite, they're kind, they're great and they have a system that works," Howie said. "I think it's a big mistake when small enterprises, small companies, something that's working well for this small group of people kind of sells out or wants to join in a larger entity like this."