ALPENA — Water customers in Alpena Township will see a change in how often they get their water and sewer bills.

On Monday, the Alpena Township Board of Trustees voted to amend an ordinance that will allow it to change how often the township bills its customers.

The township, which has sent out bills quarterly for years, is changing its billing cycle and will now issue monthly bills.

The move will mean water customers will be able to make smaller monthly payments, instead of a large payment every three months.

The change in billing has already been implemented and they will be due before the 15th of each month.

Township Trustee Steve Lappan said customer’s water meters will still be read quarterly to determine how much has been used, but the payment will be spread out over three months. He said the move should help customers keep more money in their wallets each month, instead of paying a large bill, which could impact their finances and force them to make difficult financial decisions.

“The whole purpose of this was to take the sting of a quarterly bill away from the customers and to help them be able to budget better,” Lappan said. “It may also help the township in terms of revenue. Instead of waiting for three months for the money, which goes into the enterprise fund, we will get the revenue each month and that could help with projects.”

Supervisor Abbi Kaszubowski agreed.

“We anticipate the biggest benefit being the customers’ ability to budget more easily by breaking up a larger quarterly bill into smaller and more manageable monthly bills,” she said.

The township is also slowly moving forward with trying to install new electronic water meters, which will allow the readings to take place from the office and not require people to read them at people’s homes and businesses. The new technology would also alert water customers of anything that might indicate a water leak or break. Finding a leak or water pipe break quickly can also save customers large sums of money.

The township intends to seek grant funding for the water meter project to lessen the burden on the enterprise fund.

“Just to be clear we are not currently purchasing new meters but are looking to begin planning for that,” she said. “Billing monthly will allow for the township to have a better understanding of the cash flow and better tracking of water loss. It will allow the township to be more financially aware and aide in future planning. This change in the billing system puts our billing more inline with other utility companies.”