Municipal authority to install new billing system to accept more payment options

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County water and sewer customers will see enhanced payment options when a new billing system is implemented in early 2026.

Authority board members on Wednesday approved a $350,000 contract with Blair County-based Muni-Link to modernize the system used to bill and communicate with customers, replacing outdated technology and computer programming written and installed in late 1980s and early 1990s.

The new system features additional options for customers to pay bills online. The authority now allows customers to pay quarterly bills with credit cards or through direct withdrawals from bank accounts. Additional payment options such as through third-party sites such as Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo will be available when the system goes on line in about 18 months, said authority business manager Brian Hohman.

The authority has more than 123,000 water customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties. It also serves nearly 32,000 sewer customers.

About 30,000 MAWC account holders are receive paperless bills and more than 22,000 customers are enrolled in the authority’s auto-pay program.

Authority staffers have struggled in recent years as the aging technology hindered customer service efforts and limited water and sewer customers from having access to detailed account information on line, officials said.

In addition the upfront costs to install and transfer existing data into the new system the authority will also pay a $25,000 monthly service fee to Multi-Link to use of the software.

“There will be a new web portal and it will be more user friendly,” Hohman said. “It will be a new savings as a lot of our legacy expenses will go away there will be efficiencies that we’ll see.”

MAWC, in recent years, has updated its technology and recently completed a project to modernize it’s Geographic Information Systems that now updates the authority’s infrastructure data provided to office staff and road crews in real time. The authority also installed upgrades to its internal accounting and finance software that will be integrated with the new billing system, Hohman said.