Utility customers with the city of Elizabethton now have a second payment location option for taking care of their monthly bills.
The city reopened the payment center at the Elizabethton Electric Department office on Hatcher Lane to accept payments along with the cashier’s office in City Hall. Customers will be able to make all city utility payments at the Hatcher Lane office, including electric, water and sewer bills. Customers have the option to walk in to make payments or use the drive-thru lane.
Electric Department General Manager Rob Toney said the move to reopen the Hatcher Lane payment center was a matter of convenience for the customers.
“We have more space up here, and it is easier to get in and get out here,” Toney said.
To help with the additional payment location, some cashiers from the City Hall payment office were transferred to the payment center in the EED office. Cashier Kim Shore said only a few customers had made use of the second payment location on its first day open.
The EED held an open house to celebrate the change Wednesday. Administrative Assistant Tammy Oxendine said the customers he had spoken with were happy with the new option.
“The people who live on this end of the county are really happy about it,” Oxendine said. “There is a larger area up here, and it is a beautiful facility.”
The Hatcher Lane payment center was closed about six years ago as a way to streamline the payment process for the city’s utility customers. However, city officials found city hall was not designed to handle that number of customers and made the move to reinstate payment acceptance at the EED office.