There will be a delay in the rollout of the City of Great Bend’s long-planned online water and sewer payment option, City Clerk/Finance Director Shawna Schafer said Tuesday afternoon. The system was set to begin Monday, July 1 and that has been pushed back to Monday, July 15.

“We would much rather wait until the system is tested adequately and staff has the proper training before starting the new service,” Schafer said.  

Staff is currently waiting on the vendors that help with the programs to make this happen for the city, Network Administrator James Cell said. Tyler Tech, the city’s software provider, and ETS, the third-party credit card processor, are currently holding up the process for installation. 

“I want to get the new systems installed and ensure safety for users and our city programs,” Cell said. “Therefore we will need more time since the vendors are delayed on installation.” 

Once in place, it will have many options for local residents. 

“This feature will allow customers to do more than pay bills online,” Schafer said. It will it also brings detailed account information that customers can access over the internet at any time; view current balances, last payment date, payment amount, amount past due, deposits on file, graphs detailing consumption history; and generate a transaction history.

Customers will access the system through a link on the city’s website (greatbendks.net). They will be walked through entering basic information, such as an account number.

As a security question, customers will have to enter their most recent bill amount. For added safety, credit card numbers will not be saved and have to be re-entered each time.

For the time being, there will be no surcharge for paying online since the cost for handling credit cards is minimal for now. Customers will also continue to receive a paper statement in the mail each month.

Schafer and Cell have been working on this project since April.