Central Collections hosts new ATM machine

There’s something new at the city’s Central Collections location in the Charles H. Harris Financial Services Center — an ATM.

City Treasurer Lynwood Barbour said he wanted to install an ATM as a convenient way for customers to access cash if they needed it to pay a bill — but had to work on it being low-cost for the city.

Barbour said he worked out a deal with American National Bank.

“They happened to have one taken out of another location and agreed to put it in on a trial basis,” Barbour said.

The machine was installed at the end of November, at a cost of $375 to the city. The only other cost the city pays is $19 a month for a dedicated phone line to handle the transactions.

Barbour said he has no way of knowing what people use the money they take out of the machine for, but the purpose was to have a way for customers to pay bills that required a cash payment.

People who have had utility bill checks bounce, or can’t get their car tags renewed until they pay an overdue personal property tax bill, are two examples of why people might need to have cash in hand at the center.

Barbour said he has no way of tracking how people spend the money they access from the ATM, but said he has seen people finish their transactions in the center and use the ATM before leaving.

Users who are not American National Bank customers are charged a $2 fee to use to ATM, Barbour said — “Just like at other machines.”

Barbour said it is too soon to tell whether the ATM will remain at the location permanently, but noted that it appears to be popular. He won’t reveal details about how often cash is replaced or how much is kept in the machine.

“Like other ATMs, there could be times it will be empty,” Barbour said.

Thibodeau is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.