The City of LaGrange Utilities announced on Facebook Tuesday that some bills will get to residents later than usual due to a mercury spillage that occurred Aug. 7 at a USPS facility in Dallas, Texas. The city outsources printing and mailing of utility bills to a company that uses the facility.

Due to the cleanup, the facility was closed from Aug. 7 to Aug. 14. Patrick Bowie, director of city utilities, said some customers might just be receiving those bills and will have three to four days before they are due.

“It looks like maybe there was about a week delay give or take just for those bills that went out in that second week of August,” Bowie said. “The problem is we don’t know exactly which ones are delayed.”

Bowie said they may consider waiving some late fees, but nothing has been decided at this point. Bowie said LaGrange utilities sends about 1,000 bills a day.

“We send out about 20,000 bills every month, and we bill pretty much every day,” Bowie said. “There could be out of those bills maybe 5,000 or 6,000 impacted.”

Bowie said in addition to paper bills customers can sign up for e-billing or get both an email and a paper bill every month.

“We encourage people to sign up for e-billing and to use our website. That’s a really great way to get quicker updates rather than having to wait for your bill to come in through the mail three days after it’s printed,” Bowie said.