FORT WORTH, Texas — An eye-catching video is part of a serious campaign underway by the City of Fort Worth Water Department called MYH20.
It's an effort to educate the public about Fort Worth's new water bill payment portal. The current payment portal is going away soon as part of moving to advanced technology.
Water department employees say they hope to have all residential customers converted to MYH20 by the beginning of December. They say the MYH20 Portal makes paying your monthly bill faster, easier and smarter.
The switchover goal was originally Oct. 30, 2023.
"We recently made a decision to push that back until December 4th," said Fort Worth Water Department Spokesperson Mary Gugliuzza.
The delay comes because getting the word out to customers about the MYH20 conversion and getting them to do so has been a challenge. The city has worked for months to educate longtime customers like Lesha about MYH20. Like always, she pays her water bill in person at the downtown Fort Worth payment center. But this month, Lesha has a lot of questions, because once again this month her water bill is about double the usual amount.
Lesha has not heard about MYH20, but she is interested in learning more about it.
"I am about to go in and see about it," said Lesha, "my water bill is usually $50 to $60. Last month, it was about $94, and this month it's more than $100."
Lesha is not alone when it comes to higher water bill concerns. But MYH20 Portal Payment comes with features to let customers see usage by the day.
"We have done direct mailings, emails and even phone calls to reach those customers," said Gugliuzza, "This is just taking their meter reading and creating a bill based on their volume of usage."
Eventually, Fort Worth Water Department workers will start a campaign focusing on business customers learning more about MYH20. For now, since educating the public about the residential auto payment conversion is still underway, they urge customers to do so by the new Dec. 4 deadline.
"They have to make the conversion," Gugliuzza said.