One way Lawrence utility customers pay their bills is going away, but not without some concern from residents.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission voted 4-1, with Commissioner Mike Amyx dissenting, to discontinue the use of grocery store drop boxes for utility payments.

Utility payments can be made electronically, and checks and money orders can be sent via mail or dropped off at City Hall. But some residents are concerned that those using the drop boxes may be very low-income people who don’t have cars, internet or checking accounts.

“There really are people who that extra $6 per year in stamps could be used for something else,” said Melinda Henderson. “Those people are invisible to a lot of people, and I just want to make sure we’re not overlooking them by going ahead and changing this without concrete information.”

But city staff have various concerns with the grocery store drop boxes, including that the boxes are not locked, payments may take up to six days to process, and that receipts or time stamps are not provided. The city only picks up drop box payments twice per week, and Utility Billing Manager Kristen Webb said processing delays have resulted in late fees and water shut-offs, which require a $50 reconnection fee.

About 600 customers per month use the five grocery store drop boxes around town, which is equal to less than 2 percent of the city’s 32,000 utility customers, according to a city staff memo. Webb pointed out that residents can pay their utility bills via electronic check or credit/debit card for free online and via phone, service fees for which the city now subsidizes. Payments can also be made in person at City Hall or left in a locked drop box checked every business day.

Webb said it would cost the city more staff time and money to collect payments from the grocery store drop boxes more frequently, and that there has been a dramatic drop-off in the number of those payments since the city eliminated the fees for online and phone payments. Because of the processing delay, Commissioner Matthew Herbert said some of those low-income residents using the drop boxes may be paying late fees, which would cost more than the price of a stamp.

“If we are only collecting these payments twice a week, you’re hitting people with a $1.40 late fee who may have paid on time,” Herbert said. “To me it’s not a matter of status quo. We either go with a more efficient model or look at more options.”

Vice Mayor Stuart Boley also pointed out there are mailboxes at the grocery stores that residents can use. Boley said staff’s recommendation to discontinue the service is in line with the commission’s goals.

“We’ve asked staff to be financially and environmentally sustainable and I think they are trying to do what we ask them to do,” Boley said. “Maybe what we ought to be talking about is whether (these customers) should be on a reduced utility plan.”

Currently, the city’s reduced utility plan is only available to low-income elderly residents, but commissioners have discussed expanding that program.

Amyx said if the city takes away the grocery store drop boxes, other locations besides City Hall that residents can physically drop off their payments should be considered.

“For whatever reason we have 600 people per month who do not access this building, but they want to make good on their bill,” Amyx said. “There should be a way to help them somehow. We’ve got buildings everywhere in this community that we own.”

Amyx also said that he is able to pay some of his bills with electronic check at the grocery store, and asked if that might also be an option. Webb said that a long-term goal of the utility department is to create more accessible payment options in the community, but right now the payment technology doesn’t support that feature.

The city will cease use of the grocery store drop boxes effective Feb. 16. Discontinuing the grocery store drop boxes will save the city $2,500 per year in staffing costs.