Montana-Dakota Utilities will no longer accept walk-in bill payments at its Broadway Avenue location in downtown Bismarck as of June 29.

The move is part of a company-wide restructuring that's removing walk-in bill pays from communities throughout its coverage area; payment options will be replaced with a Western Union Convenience Pay option - with cash or check - or options including online bill pay, telephone bill pay and the traditional mail-in bill pay.

Mark Hanson with the utility company said customers were notified of the change through bill inserts and posters and other material throughout the office. For a list of bill-pay locations, go to www.montana-dakota.com or call 800-MDU-FAST.

The downtown Bismarck office on Broadway will remain open, but walk-in bill-pay positions will be eliminated. Montana-Dakota Utilities will not discuss how many employees will be affected city-by-city, Hanson said, although early estimates were 130 employees would be affected company-wide by various changes throughout the three utilities under MDUResources Group Inc.

Montana-Dakota Utilities, Cascade Natural Gas Corp. and Intermountain Gas Co. are owned by MDU Resources Group Inc.They have 930,000 customers in eight states; the walk-in centers are in 24 communities throughout five states.

Seven of those offices were Intermountain Gas offices in Idaho and were closed June 1; 15 were Montana-Dakota offices in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana; and two were Great Plains offices in Minnesota.

Cascade Natural Gas Co. in Washington and Oregon closed its walk-in offices about three years ago, Hanson said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)