City treasurer, recorder on-line

Why waste a stamp if you can pay your utility bill online?

Residents can now pay Carson City bills from a parking ticket to business license, water to Latchkey fees through the Carson City treasurer's Web site.

Carson Treasurer Al Kramer said the city becomes one of the few entities using a check online for payment instead of a credit card method of payment. The payment system works through the same system that provides direct deposits to banks and allows the customer to write an "electronic check" for payment. When sent, an e-mail will be sent to the department being paid, customer and treasure's office.

"We're quite proud of it," Kramer said. "It seems to be working pretty well. If someone wants to save the stamp, save the hassle of going to the post office, this is it."

Kramer said his department handles about 600 bills daily. The online system has been up for a week with about a dozen satisfied customers. A note from one reads: "I have recently become disabled. It's nice having this Internet payment program."

The city is in the middle of updating its Web site, and Thursday the Carson City recorder's office got its own place on the Web, too.

Recorder Alan Glover said the site offers an index of documents recorded since 1985. Soon, however, information on documents from the 1860s will be up and, eventually, pictures of the actual documents will have a spot in cyberspace. Beneficial to genealogy buffs will be an index of all Carson marriages from 1855 to present.

"It could be wonderful to search at night and found that Grandma got married in Carson City," Glover said.

The site will eventually feature links to all city meeting minutes as well as agendas for upcoming meetings.

Dan Nevin, city web administrator, said the city is working on further additions to its Web site including an economic development/redevelopment site and a form center where the Web savvy could download necessary, common forms and applications. Nevin, an administrative assistant at the Fire Department, was tapped by city officials to spend part of his time this year fixing the city's Web site.

For more information, head to the Web at www.carson-city.nv.us.