SANATOGA PA – Trash collection bills mailed to Lower Pottsgrove residents can soon be paid conveniently online, by submitting a credit card number to a vendor with which the township already has a long-standing relationship, the Board of Commissioners agreed Thursday (Sept. 20, 2012).
Commissioners voted unanimously to being using Official Payments as another method to collect on its garbage invoices, for those who care to use the service. It’s by no means obligatory, they noted; bills also can be paid with a check or money order via mail or in person at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd. Cash payments, although accepted in person only, are not encouraged for safety reasons.
Official Payments will add a small flat fee to the online transaction to cover its costs. Lower Pottsgrove does not profit from the fee, Manager Rodney Hawthorne said.
Officials Payments also is the vendor on which Lower Pottsgrove relies for online payment of town, county, fire protection, and school property tax notices (from the treasurer’s office on East High Street in Sanatoga); and for water and sewer bills (from the township Authority in the municipal building).
Other vendors were investigated before the board’s vote, Hawthorne noted, but they charged a percentage of the total value of the transaction to cover their costs. The township opted for a flat-fee arrangement to avoid what it perceived as potential legal problems with percentages, he added.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Sept. 20 meeting):
- Need To Pay That Township Trash Bill? Now Do It Online
- Commissioners Closed Door On Contract Discussion
Photo from Clipart.com
I’d like to see the Trash and Sewer bills handled locally by our township treasurer instead of addresses in Baltimore… Keep our money locally..
Makes one wonder who and how those arrangements were made…