Colfax sells “old” water meters to Wheeler for $50 each

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  The Colfax Village Board has agreed to sell some of the water meters that were just taken out and replaced with the new “smart” residential water meters to the Village of Wheeler for $50 each.

Some of the old meters are a few months old, and some of them are a few years old, said Rand Bates, director of public works, at the Colfax Village Board’s July 9 meeting.

The village board decided in January of 2017 to replace the existing residential water meters with the new smart meters, which are read with computer software and allow public works employees to drive up and down the streets to read the meters rather than stopping at each house to read the meter and record the numbers.

Public works employees began installing the new water meters this spring, and while Bates thought the process of replacing the meters would take all summer, the work went much more quickly than he had anticipated.

Instead of taking about 80 hours of manpower as was the case with the old water meters, the 354 new residential water meters in the village of Colfax can now be read in about 30 minutes.

The new Kamstrup smart meters were purchased from the Dakota Supply Group out of Burnsville, Minnesota.

The very old water meters are the kind made with brass and lead, but some of the water meters just removed in Colfax are newer models made of all plastic, Bates said.

All together, there are 88 of the newer “old” meters, and Bates said he received advice from the Wisconsin Rural Water Association and HD Supply that the meters should not be thrown away because “someone will want them.”

As it turns out, the Village of Wheeler wants the water meters.

All together, the Village of Wheeler will pay $4,400 for the meters, with $2,000 down and payments of $500 to $750 per month until the balance is paid off.

The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved selling the water meters to the Village of Wheeler.

Village Trustee Anne Jenson was absent from the meeting.

According to a report provided by Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, in addition to the new smart meters saving 80 hours for the public works department employees, the new meters also save between 10 and 12 hours of time for Sheila Riemer, deputy clerk-treasurer.

With the old water meter system, after public works employees read the meters manually and wrote down the numbers, then Riemer had to manually calculate the water bill for each account.

Since the new meters are read by computer software, the information is uploaded to Riemer’s computer, and the software stores the information and automatically calculates the water bill for each account.

Water usage

To say that Bates is pleased with the new smart water meters would be an understatement.

Even in the short amount of time the system has been up and running, the benefits have made themselves abundantly clear.

So far, the meters have helped detect usage problems at five or six places in town, Bates said.

Consider the elderly woman living alone in Colfax who was “using” thousands of gallons of water per week.

When the water meters were read May 23, the account registered 13,751 gallons. Because there was no prior data in the system for that account, the software did not flag a problem, Bates noted.

By June 5, the account was registering 25,000 gallons of water used.

Bates said he went to the residence, but because the woman did not know him, she did not want to let him come inside the house to check for leaks.

Toilets that are not operating properly can use quite a lot of water in a short time, Bates noted.

The stopper in the toilet attached to a chain sometimes does not settle where it is supposed to and does not seal completely. The water will stop running in the toilet, but water is leaking continually, he said.

While the elderly woman would not let him come into the house, she did agree to let him check the outside faucet for leaks, but Bates could not find anything in the yard he could identify as the culprit.

Between 11:45 a.m. that day and 3 p.m., the water meter registered another 60 gallons of water used.

Bates said he was able to contact a family member who checked the toilet and fixed it.

Between Thursday and 11 a.m. Monday, July 9, the elderly woman’s account registered 164 gallons of water used, Bates said.

“That’s how accurate the system is,” he said.

And the more times the meters are read, the better. Each time water meter readings are loaded into the computer, another set of data is added to the history so that as time goes on, the system will become even better and faster at identifying problem areas, Bates said.

In another instance, a vacant house had used 4,000 gallons of water since June 23. When Bates contacted the owners of the property, they could not believe a vacant house, or as Bates suspects, a leaking toilet, could use so much water in such a short time.

Until the problem can be identified, the property owners shut off the water to the house, Bates said.

Several village board members wondered if property owners would be charged for water usage resulting from a leak.

If the water goes through the wastewater treatment facility (or in other words, down the drain), then the  property owner must be charged for the water usage, Bates said.

The village has more discretion in not charging for water leaking from a hose in the backyard, as an example, because the water does not go through the sewer system, he said.

“It’s a pretty cool deal … there is no guessing how much water has been through the meter (with the new system),” Bates said.

Since the new water meter system reads water usage much more accurately, people will probably notice an increase in their usage and in their water bills, said Village Trustee Mark Halpin.

If people are concerned about an increase, they should contact Rand Bates, Sheila Riemer or Lynn Niggemann to help them understand more about their water usage, Halpin said.