First garbage fees, now water meter fees?

[the following was submitted by an anonymous poster]

This morning, we're greeted by the headlines that the water department will raise water rates by 3.15% next year.

Seems that they purchased and installed water meters over the last 10 years that will not be supported anymore.

(See the news story here)

The city's response is "Well, if the company isn't going to support the technology anymore, there isn't much we can do about it."

Isn't much we can do about it? How long are we going to tolerate this?

By state law, your residential water meter must be replaced every 10 years. This is probably a holdover from decades past when water meters were not as reliable as they are now. Like many things, once we enact laws, we never go back and check them for viability. It's also possible that a company like Badger Meter lobbies the state to keep the law in place. It provides built in obsolescence and thus a new market for them.

My water meter was replaced in August of 1997. It was not the radio signal model, it was the "old" style which required somebody to read it. The article says that the city switched to the radio models in 1997. The city did not decide to switch to the new system, budget for it, and get approval in the last 6 months of 1997. They might not have had the new meters yet, but they knew they were going to switch. What did I get? The old style. Tell me that's not stupid.

Again, by law, my meter should have been replaced by July of 2007. In February of 2006, 18 months ahead of schedule, I got a notice that the city wanted to change my meter. Forget the style of the meter for a minute. This means that the city is replacing water meters when they still have approx 15% of their useful life left in them. Does that make any sense?

Okay, they said that they were changing the meters ahead of schedule so that everybody would have the same meter. I bought that, it's believable. Today, as part of the article, it says that the city knew in 2005 that this technology is obsolete, and that they would have to do something else. So, why the rush to replace meters that were still in their useful lifespan?

This is just another example of another city department run amok. The money they waste, the stupid things they do, all with seemingly no accountability at all. The only thing that happens for sure is we end up paying more money.

DBCooper