I-Team questions Baltimore City about high water bills

Councilman: Government at fault for many skyrocketing bills

BALTIMORE —High water bills are a common complaint brought to the attention of the 11 News I-Team, but no complaint could compare to the one involving a local church that the city billed for invisible homes and invisible water.

Norman Wiley, a trustee at Bible Way Missionary Church in east Baltimore, really wanted the I-Team to see nothing, to show that, in fact, 25 homes no longer exist.

"(There's) nothing here, and it's all paved over," Wiley said.

Wiley said the church is being billed for "every house that was originally here."

Ten years ago, the church purchased 25 mostly Port Street properties from Baltimore City, which had demolished the blighted homes, making way for three parking lots for parishioners.

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