The city of residents will now be able to pay their water bills online.

Starting today, they can go on the City of Ironton website and on the front page is a button to click to pay with a credit card or debit card via InvoiceCloud.

“We’re very excited by this. It’s great for our community. It is great for the citizens to pay with ease.” said Brett Thomas, the city’s Public Service director, adding that besides being able to pay your bill online, you can view your bill and set up email or text alerts when the bill is due. Paperless billing is also an option. “And hopefully, these will ease the burden for some people. If you’re a working person, it is sometimes impossible to get to the city building to pay your water bill.”

For those who don’t want to have to remember to pay their water bill, they can set it up to pay automatically.

“You can do an automated checking and have it set up so it is taken out monthly,” Thomas said. “You can also pay by calling 1-844-242-8323.”

You still will not be able to pay with a credit card or debit card at the city office.

And if your water is disconnected, you will have to pay at the city building. Thomas said that is because there are fees associated with that process like a re-connection fee and the website is not set up to handle those fees.

Thomas laughed why it took so long to get the city set up to pay utility bills online.

“That’s the million dollar question,” he said. “Utility companies have different rules that we have to follow. It’s not like a grocery store where you can walk up and pay with a credit card. We have rules and regulation we have to follow.”

He said InvoiceCloud works with the city’s software company, Software Solutions, and once the website pay option was available, the city jumped onboard.

“It’s just been one of those things that was a long time coming,” Thomas said. “I knew when I came in two years ago that we needed to offer people easier ways to pay, more ways to pay. It just took awhile.”

He added that he hoped the new option would help to reduce the number of delinquent water bills, which is over $200,000.

The City of Ironton’s website is at www.ironton-ohio.com.