Customers of Oxford Utilities may soon have a 24-hour kiosk available for paying bills.

“We’ve planned for the kiosk over the last two budget cycles but are finally ready to pull the trigger and install the kiosk,” said Rob Neely, general manager of Oxford Utilities. “We were waiting until the transition to our new customer payment portal was complete, which happened a few months ago.”

The Board of Alderman approved plans for the kiosk last week.

Neely said the kiosk and accompanying hardware costs $29,824, which is within the utility company’s budget. The plan is to fill the island next to the drive-thru window with an all-day payment kiosk.

Due to global supply chain issues and labor shortages, manufacturing lead times are backed up but Neely said Oxford Utilities customers can expect the 24-hour payment kiosk to be delivered, installed and running in three to six months.

“The kiosk is important because it provides additional customer options for payment,” said Neely. “Currently we only have a night drop box and don’t allow cash payments to be made for security reasons.”

Once the kiosk is up and running, customers can pay using cash, check and credit card payments.