Girard to retry reading meters

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

Officials hope for better results with evening hours.

GIRARD — City officials have decided to give door-to-door water meter reading a second try.

Water department employees will read the meters throughout the water district between noon and 8 p.m. beginning Monday.

The city, earlier this summer, started a meter-reading campaign with the goal to read as many meters in the city as possible — every meter if possible. Water meters had not been read in five years.

Meter readers, armed with ID tags and brightly colored vests, read only about 24 percent of the meters in the city.

Jerry Lambert, safety service director, said this second round of meter reading is an attempt to gain access to some of the homes where readers could not gain access before. He said a major problem with the earlier attempt was the morning reading hours.

“What we are trying to do is hit the places we didn’t get answers at before. It’s like we said all along, if there are two people working during the day, how are you going to get a reading?” said Lambert.

Lambert said city officials will be happy if they can reach another 25 percent of those in the water district.

Before the current meter readings, residents were asked to self-read their meters and submit those readings to the city, via a card supplied by the city, or phone the readings in to a designated city number. As a last resort, Lambert said, the city would estimate the bills of some residents.

Lambert said having the meter readers out making the readings is a much more accurate method of collecting the information, but there may soon be an even more accurate method in use.

City council has given Safety Service Director Jerry Lambert approval to seek bids for remote water meter readers. Members of council and city administration have long said the remote readers would be a benefit to the city.

Lambert said the city will go out for bids on the remote readers as soon as possible. He said the city will consult with the company issuing its current water department material to make sure the bid specifications are compatible to the city’s current system.

According to Lambert, the city will likely be able to obtain meter readings from city hall with a remote access system. He said any driving to obtain readings would be minimal.

jgoodwin@vindy.com