Due to complaints of slow processing times, the City of Turlock has decided to relocate the utility bill drop box located outside of the Turlock Irrigation District Main Office.

While many City of Turlock water customers are paying bills online, some still choose to drop the bill off monthly at either City Hall or the drop box located outside of TID, on Canal Drive.

However, according to Municipal Services Director Michael Cooke, the time it takes to process the bills dropped off at the Canal Drive box often take significantly longer than bills dropped off at other locations.

The payments in the Canal Drive drop box are collected every morning by a courier service and then taken to the bank to be processed. Once processed, they are delivered to the City of Turlock and payments are posted.

“It’s almost 48 hours between you dropping off your envelope and that payment reaching the City’s property,” said Cooke. “If it’s a weekend, it’s even longer."

To help mitigate delays, the City of Turlock will be relocating the drop box from Canal Drive to A Street, which will allow those bills delivered before 5 p.m. to be processed same day, said Cooke.

Customers will still be able to use the drop box at City Hall, as well as pay utility bills online. Cooke also announced that a mobile app will be launched soon that will allow customers to pay bills directly from their phone.

According to Cooke, they’ve only received one complaint about the relocation so far.

Customers should expect the relocation to be complete sometime around July 1.