http://www.msnbc.com/local/KNOP/2832.asp

Bills are on the way Royce Wilson NORTH PLATTE, Neb., Jan. 19-Officials say it will probably take until the middle of next month for the system to run smoothly. North Platte Municipal Light and Water officials are optimistic about the new system that operates their monthly bills and records.

Youve checked the meter, and the lights are still on, but you havent received your electric bill for December yet, well dont worry theres a good explanation. Larry Linstrom, City Utility Manager, Weve been working on upgrading our utility billing program and our whole computer system for a couple of years and the first of October, thats when we brought on the city on the new system and we have the payroll and all that stuff, then there was modules that came on at different times and the utility billing package was scheduled to come on line the first of December and we kind of wanted to run parallel with our old system for thirty days and work through all the bugs and make sure it was calculated correctly and make sure the information was correct. We were running thirty days late getting the conversion done. So that means the electric meters are being read this week so your bill may show several weeks of service. Linstrom says, This first that the customers get here in January some of those bills are going to be six to seven weeks long, so they are going to be a couple of weeks more longer than their normal bill would be, rather than four weeks when you would get one bill a month, this first bill is going to be longer. The Municipal Light and Water customers should like the new billing system as the bills should be easier to understand and the system should be functional for many years to come.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 20, 2000