On a few occasions,  I have been asked why the town imposes a fee when accepting payment of taxes or other charges on line by credit card.  I advise that I don't like that circumstance either but my research into it has not come upon an alternative that will work within the town's budget.  Payments made by credit card require that the town pay a processing fee to the credit card company.  So, if an abundance of our taxes and other fees were paid by credit card, the cost to the town could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I hope most of our customers will understand that dilemma.

There is an alternative, however, that I recommend to people who are electronic payment oriented.  It happens to be the one I use to pay my tax bills in the two communities where I have obligations.  I use my bank's online bill pay systems.  My experience to date is there are no cost burdens to either side of the transaction and the banking community prefers it to our hand written paper checks.  If you consider using a bank online bill pay option for a tax bill or any other obligation to the town, the only caution that is prudent to mention is to be sure to include the town account number for each payment that is made.  In my case, I process each of my real estate, auto, sewer and water bills as separate payments.  Once they are all set up with the bank,  it makes paying the bills easy,  and I have never had a problem with any payment processed in that fashion.  Finally, based on my discussion with our finance director, the bank bill pay systems that many of our customers already use have not complicated our processing system in any way.  It is the kind of win win with no cost solution that we strive to find.

Got an idea on how we can make this or any process easier (and less costly!) for the services we provide?  Let us know.  

=========================================================

As the years pass, it is a pleasure for any of us to make contact with the high school and college classmates whose company we enjoyed so many years ago.  Reconnecting for almost any reason is great.  When one of my old Lincoln High friends (and fortunately we are getting old!) recently sent a Facebook message asking that I contact him when time allowed I jumped at the chance.  Stephen Benjamin and his wife Karen, who now split time between Fancy Gap, Virginia and Tampa, Florida, were looking for a way to support care for animals where the donation they would make would directly benefit animals instead of paying for overhead and salaries.  I was happy to make them aware of our Friends of the North Smithfield Animal Shelter who meet that target in every way.  With no hesitation Steve and Karen sent a check for $1000 to support the efforts of our volunteers.  So, I want to say this very public thank you to Steve and Karen Benjamin for making contact to say hello, and for recognizing our shelter and the work that our volunteers do in service to animals in need.    

 

  * Bid Proposal for Senior Transportation

Bid Proposal for Contract and General Conditions Concentrated Liquid Brine January 2018

* Invitation to Bid

*Brine Bid 2018

Municipal Building Review Task Force Meeting

Monday, January 22nd @ 7:00 pm

NS Middle School

1850 Providence Pike

North Smithfield, RI  02896

Thursday, January 25th  @ 7:00 PM

Primrose Fire Station 

1470 Providence Pike

North Smithfield, RI  02896