Lauren LaFleur
Jacksonville Progress
JACKSONVILLE — The 5,000 water customers serviced by the City of Jacksonville can now pay their bills online.
Starting this week, new software allowed the city to add the option to its Web site.
“We’ve been working on this for about a year, and this week we got it lined out, said City Manager Mo Raissi.
The option will reduce man-hours used by city employees to process bills both mailed in and dropped by City Hall, and will eliminate standing-in-line time for customers, said City Finance Director Freddy Thomas.
He said a lot of the city’s customers already use automatic bank drafts to pay their bills, but the new online pay option will make paying water bills even easier on customers.
“We’ve already had about half a dozen citizens use it, out of the blue, and we’ve had no hiccups with it as of yet,” Thomas said.
He was the second customer to pay his bill with the new system and said the experience was pleasant.
“I thought it was very user-friendly,” Thomas said. “It’s very convenient for customers and will make it easier on the city to take payments.”
He said new software had to be put in place before the system was ready to go — both the accounting system and the water system software had to be updated.
Any City of Jacksonville water customer wishing to pay their bill online can go to the city’s Web site, www.jacksonville-texas.com, and click on “Pay your water bill online” near the top of the page (next to the word “NEW” in red). The automated system then prompts users to input their account and personal identification, or PIN, numbers, both found on a statement from the city.
Currently the system takes only credit cards or debit cards that can be used as credit cards.
Thomas said anyone who has problems with the system or who may need a little help their first time working through it can contact him or Donna Perry by calling City Hall at 903-586-3510.
