You paid your Demopolis water bill in plenty of time and you got a notice that you still haven’t made your payment and you have seven days… or else.

If that has happened to you in the past week, you’re not alone. Apparently, the post office has misplaced nearly 200 water bill payments that were made by citizens of Demopolis.

One man who visited city hall on Tuesday was upset because his water had been turned off &045;&045; and he had made his water payment.

According to a written statement from Caldwell, the City of Demopolis Water Department has "experienced a large number of delinquent water bills this month.

Bills, which are normally mailed on the 25th of each month, are followed with a late notice on the 11th of the following month.

While figuring out what happened to the payments is mere speculation, Caldwell believes the problem has occurred in Montgomery.

When a person in Demopolis mails any sort of envelope with a stamp, that piece of mail is not sent directly from Demopolis to the intended location. Instead, it goes all the way to Montgomery and then is sent to its destination. Unfortunately, that means a piece of mail sent from Demopolis to another Demopolis address is still sent to Montgomery first.

In order to help solve the problem this month, Caldwell said customers are not being charged a $3 late fee. They also are not being charged to reconnect their existing service.

Though Caldwell said the postal matter will work itself out, he encouraged citizens to use another form of payment in the future.