FLINT, MI -- Flint residents can go back to paying city bills online more than three weeks after a ransomware attack disabled that and other services.

Mayor Sheldon Neeley announced the restoration of the online bill-payment option in a news release on Friday, Sept. 6, clearing the way for water, sewer and tax bills to be paid at InvoiceCloud.

Neeley's announcement says there will be a one-month grace period ending on Oct. 7 for residents to pay outstanding bills.

In the weeks following the ransomware attack, the city waived late fees or water shutoffs because of nonpayment.

Flint is "nearing full restoration" of its phone system, has recovered most of its computer data, and has successfully restored the majority of its servers from backup, the mayor said.

"Our goal is always to be better today than we were yesterday, and we are moving closer to our goal of full recovery every day," Neely said in a statement issued by the city. "I want to thank our internal team and our external partners who continue to work tirelessly as we bring our systems back online."

Neeley said after the ransomware attack that the city had installed a redesigned computer network, including firewalls designed to deter cyber attacks and strengthen safeguards.

City officials have not announced the financial cost of the recovery to date or said if employee or resident data was compromised because of the network attack.

They have declined to say whether a demand for payment was made in connection with the incident, which resulted in a criminal investigation involving the FBI.

Neeley said last week that the city has "not done all the things that were necessary to be done over the last two decades" to prevent the ransomware attack.