"The online bill does not show past-due balances or late charges in the itemized billing," according to the Water Clerk's office. "Late fees are added the day after a missed due date, but our online platform can take 24 to 48 hours to update, which may cause the total displayed online to look lower than the actual balance."
Now, officials in the village are acknowledging those comments — and making plans to implement a much-needed change to East Alton's payment portal.
"We've seen a lot of online conversation about water bills recently and want to help clear up a few common questions," the village wrote on its Facebook page. "We understand how frustrating that can be."
Darreth Naylor, East Alton's Water Clerk, told The Telegraph that the village's payment system has been a problem since the pandemic era.
"Our current software provider didn't have their own online payment platform when we set up services back in 2020, so we went with a different third-party platform," Naylor said.
Since that 2020 update, Naylor said, the city's software provider developed its own integrated online payment platform. That system is designed to integrate seamlessly with East Alton's current software, enabling timely, automatic updates for clients.
Naylor said this new system will help eliminate many of the issues customers have experienced with delayed balance reflections. However, the village is still in the early stages of implementing changes to its payment system.
"No changes have been implemented thus far, and we are nowhere near a transition date," Naylor said. "We are simply working proactively toward improvements after identifying areas that need to be addressed."
East Alton officials have encouraged residents to continue calling the office at (618) 259-6521 for the most up-to-date balance and due date information.
©2026 The Telegraph, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
