WATER METERS: 4,000 don't work in Ventnor

[OPRA Reporter]

The Workshop held by the Commission last week Thursday was videotaped and will be uploaded to YouTube in the next week.

In what will be presented as Segment #4 of the video, Commissioner Piatt advised that an inquiry about Water and Sewer revenues at the previous month's Workshop had set off some further investigation by the Commission. He wished to report that the Commission had discovered that there are over 4,000 water meters in Ventnor which are essentially inoperative. Their batteries died over the course of the years, and there was no systematic replacement program in place to change meter batteries.

As a result, the homes served by those meters have been getting minimum charge bills and the owners have not been paying charges based on actual usage.

Commissioner Piatt reported that the cost of rectifying the situation of 4,000 inoperable water meters was investigated and estimated costs were as follows:

$217,000 to install batteries with 5 years life;
$620,000 to install batteries with 20 years life;
$800,000+ to change over to the newest digital technology, which would be the most long-lasting solution.

The Commissioner stated that the issue would be discussed and decided by vote in open public meetings, but that his comments at the Workshop were to share information with Ventnor citizens as it becomes known.

There are approximately 6,500 housing units in Ventnor. While individual units may have more than one meter at their premises -- so as to "save" by having water-only meters used for sprinkler systems or other outdoor facilities and separated from meters serving a house which are used for water-and-sewer charges -- the fact remains that 4,000 inoperable meters is a significant percentage of the total meters deployed in the City.

During the campaign, WLV learned of a "rumor" that there might be an indeterminate number of new homes which, after construction in recent years, did not have operable water meters installed. This rumor was never reported because it could not be authenticated. The representation was made that utility service points had been covered over with concrete before appropriate meter installations could occur. It was not clear if no meters were ever installed, or if inoperable meters had gone in.

Another item of information which WLV did post in the Forums was a complaint from a resident of a condo association, advising that the residents were contemplating a class action lawsuit after having been billed inordinate sums of money for what appeared to be wildly unrealistic and impossible volumes of water usage. It is unclear if the deficit in one area (4,000 non-functioning meters) might have triggered the other situation (alleged over-billing). The condo resident reported that fellow residents had been seeing bills claiming as much as 65,000 gallons of use in a billing cycle.

[Justice & American Way]

Somebody told me that Ventnor loses 30% or more of its water supply because of leaking and obsolete pipes. This other news now finds me asking asking if water meters were the true cause all along?

It seems like Water and Sewer must know how much gets pumped out by the city into its water system at the source??? If the meters worked, then what gets billed as water volume used by everybody would match. Until the meters are fixed or replaced, the volume being lost because of leaky pipes can't be estimated. or can it?

[VentnorMod]

Shaun Smith focuses his excellent eye for detail on Ventnor's budgetary and infrastructure issues in this week's article from the Current.

The bond anticipatory notes to cover the fishing pier construction costs, which the new Commission learned after arriving in office had been getting paid from Current Funds, will be in the amount of $2,936,000 and at 2% interest. They would later be rolled over into long-term financing. The article mentions the higher-end cost of $810,000 for replacing the estimated 4,000 inoperative water meters with digital technology.