ODESSA, Texas — Director of Billing and Collection, Agapito Bernal says the department closure is to implement a new billing system for Odessa residents.
“Our new billing system is going to be put into effect which includes a new payment system, an updated reading system, and will be able to communicate seamlessly with our finance department,” says Bernal.
The big change he wants residents to look out for is how they will be receiving their bills differently than they are used to.
"They’ll have an 8 1/2 x 11 page versus our postcard and we won’t be sending out any more delinquent notices and everything will be encompassed in that one page," he says.
This is the 2nd phase of the update that will only be effecting three utilities: water, trash and solid waste.
An update that he tells me should make the payment system more secure.
"Our payment system is gonna be a little bit more about robust. In addition, it’ll be more secure, that’s one of the concerns that we had with the old system. The security wasn’t quite there," says Bernal.
The department will not be taking any payments during the closing and residents should have been informed in advance about how they can plan to pay.
"We’ve created a question within the scheduling so everybody’s gonna be billed before and then everybody’s going to be billed afterwards so we’ve been preparing for it," says Bernal.
Residents should expect this closing to last until November 2nd.
If an emergency occurs during the closing, you can call 432-335-3200.
