The Lawrence Utility Billing Office is not a quiet place. For the half-dozen people who work in the cramped space on the second floor of City Hall, the noise is always there.

“We’re all on the phone all day … it just rings continuously,” said customer service representative Barbara Archinal.

Archinal said most of those calls were simple. People want to know their account balances or when their bill is due. Most don’t take more than a few minutes. But some days, there are just too many calls.

“We can have over 60 in a day,” Archinal said. “During July and August, it can get up over 100.”

So many calls means city staff do not have as much time to devote to more serious customer concerns, such as water being turned off or a mistake in a bill.

City officials say they are hoping a new Web site will help quell the calls. This month, every utility customer is receiving an account and PIN — or personal identification number — for a new Internet utility called “Click-2-Gov.”

“It allows people to have much more access to their account information,” said financial analyst Joe Yager.

Instead of picking up the phone and calling city staff, customers can see all the details of their utility history with the city. Users, for example, can see what they paid for sanitation in 2001, how much water they used last month and when this month’s bill is due.

“Maybe you can see in August my usage spiked and water cost me $10 more,” Yager said. “Now you can start budgeting for that.”

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Only 185 people have accessed the system so far, but Yager said it was early.

“We won’t really know how many people will use it until the student rush” in July and August, Yager said.

Along with reducing call volume at the billing office, Yager said he hoped the site would increase revenue by making customers more likely to pay their bills on time, reducing city operating costs.

Eventually, the city plans to link the existing online bill-paying feature to the account information, making paying your utility bill a one-click affair.