Some People Experienced Higher Water Bills During Meter Upgrade When Their Old Meter Was Replaced

During his push to get people to schedule their water meter upgrade for the radio transmitter, City Administrator Chris White reported that some people also had their entire water meter replaced, which resulted in a higher bill because the meter was old and the City had been estimating. With a new water meter, the City of Beacon gives exact reads.

He said that there are people who have not changed out their meters in over a decade, who are now facing larger bills. He told the Council: “We literally had people that hadn't changed out their meters in over a decade, and had never responded to the City. So, absent some type of mechanism to get their attention, and find them...those people now as the meters are being changed out, and we're getting actual reads, some of them are facing very large bills because we've estimated their usage and they significantly exceeded that usage. They have to pay for the water that they use.”

He continued: “So it's in everyone's interest both the City and the homeowners to have these upgraded to have these read in a timely manner, and to be able to keep an eye on them. I can't tell you how frustrating it is when someone comes in with a bill that's in the thousands of dollars after a 3-month cycle when they didn't know there was a leak, and with the new system, they will be able to more easily detect leaks, and then remedy those before they run up large bills.”

A Little Beacon Blog reached out to City Administrator Chris to get clarification on how a homeowner can know if they are to get a new water meter during the radio transmitter swap-out, but has not received a response as of this publishing.