Opp residents looking to avoid the cold weather this week can now pay their utility bills from home, as the city has added an online utility payment to their website.

The new payment option was announced during Monday’s city council meeting, and Mayor John Bartholomew said the addition went live “about a week ago,” and has undergone several tests in order to insure it is functioning properly.

“All of our tests came back positive,” Bartholomew said. “It’s live right now, so you can go to our website and pay your bills.”

Bartholomew said the new payment option could not have come at a better time, as many residents are looking to avoid getting out in the record-low winter weather.

“We worked very hard putting that all together, and it’s something I’ve really wanted to do since coming into office,” he said. “It’s something we really wanted to do to make things more convenient for everyone.”

Although the brunt of this week’s weather seems to have passed, Bartholomew said Tuesday that residents have also heeded the city’s warnings about power consumption.

“We haven’t had any outages,” he said. “We’ve been asking people to turn down the thermostats and throw an extra blanket on, and things like that.”

During Monday’s meeting, the council also approved a bid for a 2013 pick-up truck for the Parks and Recreation department in the amount of $22,655.

That price is up from the $22,112 for a 2014 pick-up approved in an amendment during the Dec. 17, 2013, meeting.

Bartholomew said the new price had to be approved after it went up $543 for a truck one year older than the vehicle in the original budget. Bartholomew added the 2013 pick-up was found on a lot, as opposed to having to order one and have it shipped to Opp.

“We bid for the truck, and then the price went up, but it was still less than what we would have spent to order one, which would have taken eight weeks,” he said.