FRANKLIN
Franklin residents who have been looking for their electric bills in the mail don’t have to wait to make payments.

Typically, the invoices are mailed around the seventh of each month, sometimes earlier. But the City is in its first month transitioning to a new computer software system, according to City Manager Randy Martin. He he anticipates the bills going out this week.

Meanwhile, “We are accepting payments,” he said, adding that customers can look at their bill from last month as a way to help figure out how much they should pay now. If what they submit turns out to be more than the bill, they’ll be credited. If it’s under, then a notice of the balance will be sent.

Martin said some sort of grace period will be given as the new system is being evaluated. He believes that in spite of this delay, there’s still ample time for people to make payments by the 20th of the month.

“We appreciate people’s patience,” said Martin.

He congratulated the staff members for their work: “I’m very proud of them the way they’ve been handling the transition [using dual systems] — they’ve been working late and hard.”

Over the next several months, new features will be added to enable customers to make payments in more convenient ways, such as online or level pay.

Martin said that the latter method would allow customers in good standing to arrange paying a flat amount every month, with an occasional accruement after heavy use.