Washington utility customers are seeing a new utility bill in this week’s mail. City utility bills in Washington have a new look and format – as of this week, the old postcard bill is gone, replaced by a more detailed bill that comes in an envelope.

“The new bills were mailed out Friday and everyone should have theirs by now,” said City Clerk Debbie Danner. “The new utility bills will be in a window envelope instead of the postcard that we’ve been using. The envelope will say ‘City of Washington’ in the window.”

There had been complaints about the use of postcards for the utility bills for years. “They could get lost in the mail, and the return address confused some people,” Danner said. “Some people wanted their utility information to be more private, and we found that bills in envelopes should actually get there faster.”

The new bills will contain more information about city customers’ utility usage along with larger, easier-to-read type, she said. Each bill will have a return envelope to send in the payment by mail, but the bills can still be paid in person.