Friday, May 3, 2024
While the city of Granbury continues to get back on track following a recent network outage and compromise, the city has made substantial progress involving utility billing.
On Tuesday, Oct. 10, a notice was sent out to utility billing customers notifying them of the recent update involving their July bills.
“August bills for your July utility service have been sent to all customers,” the notice reads. “Remember, those were extremely hot and dry weeks. Your bill accurately reflects your water and electricity usage.”
The notice also states that by Oct. 24, utility billing customers should receive their September bill for their utility usage in August, which was another hot and dry period of high usage.
"There's been a lot of progress, and that's been good,” Jeff Newpher, city communications manager, told the HCN on Oct. 14. “Obviously, we're all impatient for everything to get back to 100% normal, and the stage we're in right now is the data has been able to be put together so bills can be sent out.”
He said many customers have expressed concern regarding their bills being higher than normal, but Newpher assured that the bill amounts are “doubled-checked for accuracy” before being sent out.
“It was 100 degrees many, many days and people used a lot of extra water many, many days, so those are hot and dry weeks that these bills that they're receiving now encompass that time period, but they are double-checked.”
The notice also states bank drafts have resumed for customers who are set up for automatic bank drafts. The date of a customer’s bank draft will be listed on their bill, although some customers may see two separate bank drafts in the month of October as bank drafts are being processed for July and August utility bills.
“We're really thrilled to have bank drafts resume for people who have automatic bank drafts,” Newpher said. “One of the things we do want people to know is this month they'll receive separate bank drafts, one for July and one for August, so, that will kind of get them closer to being caught up. When we went months without collecting anything from people, obviously you have to make that up at some point, so we're so grateful for the people of Granbury. They've been very patient with us through this.”
Newpher reiterated that no data was released from the network compromise that took place on July 30, explaining that “things were shut down very quickly to prevent that from happening.”
As for the future of the city network, Newpher said progress is being made and the city is “getting closer to normal.”
“We're making steps every day and every week. When it reaches normal, it'll be a better normal than it was before,” he said.
If anyone would like to be removed from automatic bank drafts or if they have any questions, they are encouraged to contact the utility billing team by email at ub@granbury.org, by phone at 682-205-1777 option 7, or by text at 817-776-8125.
“If you have questions, by all means, use whatever method is easiest for you,” Newpher added. “If it doesn't matter, go ahead and send us an email because those things can be answered in batches. But if that's not something that's good for you, pick up the phone and call us. If you like texting, send us a text. The billing team wants to be interactive for people who need that personalized information.”
