photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence City Hall at 6 East 6th St pictured on Dec. 10, 2024.

Some City of Lawrence utility customers who have fallen behind on their payments will soon be able to set up payment plans to help pay those amounts down, the city announced on Thursday.

“We’re excited to open up payment arrangements to our customers who have been advocating for this process, especially for our community members who might be experiencing hardship during this holiday season and beyond,” said Kristy Webb, the city’s utility billing manager, in a news release.

Starting Monday, Dec. 23, the payment plans will be available to customers who are two months or more past due with a past-due balance of $150 or more, the release said. Customers also must not have had a previous payment arrangement with the city in the last 12 months.

For those who qualify for a plan, the city will create a timeframe of up to three months for when the outstanding payment amount is due. The release said that the amounts specified by the payment plan must be paid in addition to the customers’ regular monthly utility bills, and that customers can’t be late on their regular utility bills during the course of the payment plan.

If the required amounts are not paid by 5 p.m. on the monthly bill due date, the city can disconnect utility services without further notice, and the entire account balance and a reconnection fee must be paid for services to be restored. The release also said that payment plans can’t be reinstated if the terms are broken.

Customers can sign up for a payment arrangement through the utility billing team at lawrenceks.org/utility-billing, in person or over the phone at 785-832-7878.

This is not the city’s first time using payment plans for utilities; it also briefly used them in 2021. As the Journal-World reported, the city suspended late fees, collections and utility shutoffs in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in about 11% of customers having past-due balances for a total of $1.95 million in delinquent payments. Webb told the Journal-World the city offered payment plans on utility accounts for a time in 2021 after the city ended the moratorium. The city stopped these arrangements on Jan. 1, 2022, Webb said.