North Judson residents will notice a change to their utility bills starting in 2019.
Billing Clerk Jennifer Vanek came before the town council last week, seeking their permission to switch from card style bills to letters in envelopes. She noted that the service is provided through Boyce which the company that owns the Keystone, the billing software the town utilizes.
She told members, “We just send them a file about once a month, about two to three days before we want them to be mailed and for 19 cents a bill they will print, fold and mail.”
In addition to saving time, having similar pricing and increasing privacy for the customer, Vanek said one of the major advantages to switching would be the capability to include more information on the bills.
She noted that with the current card-style, they’re limited to 30 characters and if a customer has some sort of notice about their service, they do no receive the special messages that the town includes to notify people about upcoming events or public alerts.
With this service, they could include as much additional information as they’d like as long as it’s included with the file they send in advance.
She told the members there would be an initial $850 charge to turn the service on. The Town would also need to provide two months worth of postage and 19 cents for each letter that would be sent in that time.
Vanek said that money would be saved in account that would be dipped into so that bills would still be sent even if a check gets lost in the mail or a payment doesn’t go through for whatever reason.
The council unanimously approved Vanek’s request. She noted that they will be finishing out the year with the cards but starting in January, residents can expect to find letter style bills in their mailboxes.
