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Three scour Girard on a meter mission
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ANOTHER ATTEMPT: Girard meter readers Ben Belcik, left, and Brien Golden leave an Ohio Avenue house after unsuccessfully attempting to gain access to the water meter inside the home. The notification of their attempt hands from the mailbox in the background.
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DOOR TO DOOR: Girard meter readers Ben Belcik, left, and Brien Golden try to reach the occupant of this Ohio Avenue home. Like with most attempts by readers in the city, it was unsuccessful Monday. No one was home.
GIRARD — Three summer employees of the city are trying to accomplish something that has not been done in five years — finish reading all city water meters.
Every day, 20-year-olds Rob Charles, Brien Golden and Ben Belcik — all college students — don bright green shirts and identification badges, gather a list of city water customers and head out in their city-issued Ford Taurus. The next eight hours are spent knocking on doors.
Earlier this summer, the city started a campaign with the goal of reading every water meter in the city. At the end of the first attempt, only about 25 percent of the meters had been read; therefore, Charles, Belcik and Golden have been given the job of trying again, but with different hours: noon till 8 p.m.
Safety Service Director Jerry Lambert said he will be happy if the trio can at least get into the homes of an additional 25 percent of the population and read the meters. He said reading every meter was definitely a lofty goal.
According to Charles, an additional 25 percent is about what the group will do by the end of the week.
“We don’t even get into most of the homes, but at least the people are nice at the homes we do get into,” he said.
The group started out late Monday afternoon on Iowa Drive moving between houses where meters had not been read in the first attempt. Out of the five houses attempted from the list, two meters were read.
For those houses either sitting empty or with no occupant home to answer the door, the trio leaves a pink-and-white card to inform the resident of the time and date that an attempt was made.
“Someone has to come back eventually,” said Golden.
At the first house where a reading was actually taken, Golden and Belcik were in the home less than three minutes, exchanging polite conversation with the elderly grandmother who happened to be baby-sitting when the readers arrived.
According to city officials, most water customers over the last five years either have read their own meters and sent the results to the city, or the city would estimate the charges and send a bill.
Iowa Drive resident Melinda Helt did not know where the meter was in the home she has occupied for the past five years. She said she did not look for it or check the reading, but simply paid the bill when it was issued. She is happy the meter is being read.
Leon Hobbs on South Davis Street said he would send his readings to the city religiously. He did not mind the Monday evening reading, but said it did not matter to him if he or the city makes the reading as long as it gets done.
The city may be devising a plan that would save college students from going door to door while on summer break. City officials are exploring the cost of a remote meter reading system that would allow the city to read meters automatically from downtown.