Sunday, May 12, 2024
After four months of dealing with utility billing issues due to a city network hack, the end of a stressful situation is in sight for utility billing customers.
On July 30, the City of Granbury’s computer network was hacked; the event was declared a catastrophe during an Oct. 17 city council meeting.
During the network hack, customers were unable to make utility payments online and had to drop off their payments in person. Credit card payments were also not accepted during the outage. Late fees, penalties and shut offs were not conducted during this time.
During a regularly scheduled city council meeting on Nov. 21, City Manager Chris Coffman announced that December bills will be on time and bills will no longer run behind.
City of Granbury Finance Director Eva Gregory spoke during the meeting and thanked the utility billing and meter reading teams.
“The outage caused a huge impact on our customers. We had a lot of customers calling and asking about their bills and our team had to explain to them why,” Gregory said during the meeting. “Our phones haven’t stopped ringing and they’re still ringing. I can assure you they’re all getting excellent service from our team. In December, customers will not only have their bill on time but they also will have the normal due dates.”
Coffman also extended his thanks to the utility billing team and the meter reading team during the meeting.
“You all have been very patient and very effective in communication with people (about) what’s going on. Thank you all for enduring and staying in the trenches and being patient and professional. It’s such a blessing to have you all and I can’t thank you enough.
“We certainly are happy with the approach that you guys have taken to work and to satisfy customers,” Mayor Jim Jarratt said during the meeting.
City councilman Eddie Rodriguez also extended his thanks and gratitude to both teams noting they are front-line workers.
“In the military we had the front-line and those are the ones that get hit the hardest and you are the front-line for the city. You take the blunt of the punishment, so I just want to say thank you for being a representative for the City of Granbury,” Rodriguez said during the meeting.
Utility payments are running normally again and are available to make online, by phone or text.
For more information on utility billing contact ub@granbury.org, call 682-205-1777, or visit the office located at 116 W. Bridge St.
