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By Chris Case
STEELVILLE–If you ask John Brice, it’s all about consistency. Or in his case, the lack of it.
Brice was part of Monday night’s city council meeting agenda, seeking to get relief from a July water and sewer bill totaling more than $200.
Holding a spreadsheet filled with his utility expenses for the past year, the Robin Hill homeowner of 13 years said there was a problem somewhere and it wasn’t his mistake.
“There doesn’t seem to be any consistency at all here from month to month,” he said. “These fluctuations in my bill don’t make any sense. I don’t have a swimming pool, I don’t have a garden and I don’t have a leak.”
Brice’s July bill showed he used 66,000 gallons of water during the billing period.
“There’s no way I used that much water,” he told aldermen. “The water was shut off in half of the house all month because I was working on one of the bathrooms. The water wasn’t even on in that bathroom.
“It makes me wonder if they only read my meter once every three or four months and then just guess the rest of the time.”
Figures in hand, Brice asked how his usage could go from 600 gallons one month to 800 the next and then to 6,000 a month later. He said the readings were all over the map, going up and then down again.
“When something goes wrong with a meter, they have a tendency to slow down or stop working altogether. Something has happened here, but I don’t know what to say about it,” responded Alderman Skip Pounds. “What would you speculate if the meter is right and the water is running through the meter?”
“I have no idea,” Brice answered. “That’s why I asked Tom (Murray) if they read the meter every single month or if they just averaged it.”
Murray, the city supervisor, stated Brice’s meter wasn’t that old. “We had a similar problem (at the house) in 2005 and changed the meter then,” he noted. “It shouldn’t be the meter.”
Murray also said that he could put in another meter, “but the way a meter works, there has to be water moving through it to make it turn. It can’t turn by itself. Now where all that water went to, I have no idea.”
According to Alderman Pounds, the city has been struggling with the problem of reporting more water pumped than is paid for by customers each month. “We have tried repeatedly to find out where the water usage is coming from that we’re not getting paid for,” he said, “so we don’t know where this water is going. If you pump a million gallons of water and only get paid for 60 percent of it, there’s a serious problem.”
Alderwoman Elaine Taylor said another resident near Brice’s home had also reported an extremely large water usage for the month. She didn’t think it was possible for an elderly man living alone to use 59,000 gallons in a month. She asked if it was a widespread problem, but Murray didn’t think so.
Brice told the council he just wanted to be treated fairly, not given any special treatment. “If I had consistent usage from month to month, I wouldn’t even be here because I’d know there was a leak somewhere,” he remarked. “I’ve checked all my lines; there’s no leak. I have two faucets with a slow drip. They’re still dripping, but they’re not leaking 66,000 gallons of water in a month.”
The council agreed to take a 12-month average of Brice’s water usage of the past year and bill him for that amount, rather than charging him for the previously billed July amount.
“I think it would only be fair to do that for him,” said Alderman Cleo Chandler.
Pounds voted in favor of amending the utility bill, but admitted he wasn’t really sure how to handle the situation because the city’s meter was believed to be functional. “I feel for John, but I’ve got a meter that says that water went through it, and we don’t know where it went.”
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