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Larry Stanford

Editor

Yatesville Mayor Cecil Moncrief is advising city water customers that if they believe their water meter is being read incorrectly, they need to keep the readings themselves for a month and then compare them to the city’s readings. The issue came up at the Yatesville City Council meeting on Nov. 11.

“We have a lot of people coming up here and saying, ‘Ain’t nobody reading my water meter. They don’t read it. Ain’t no way they read my water meter,’” said Moncrief.

“The water meters are read once a month. If you don’t think your water meter reading is right, then when you get your bill, you go out and read your meter. Number one, you go out and make sure that little dial on the meter is not spinning. If that little dial is spinning, you’ve got a water leak, end of story. You’ve got a water leak somewhere.

“I’ve told them, go ahead and read the meter,” the mayor said. “When you get your next water bill, you go read your meter again and compare it to what you have on that water bill. Then if you come in here and your water meter reading is 123456 and we have on the bill 234567, then we’ve got a problem. We’ll correct it if we have to. If we’re wrong, we’ll make a correction.”

Mayor Moncrief added that residents tell him they can’t read the meter because there is mud over it. He tells them the meter is still being read. City Clerk Connie Vaughn, who was reading the meters inbetween one meter reader quitting and another one being hired, said mud and dirt on the meters is a common circumstance.

“You can read that meter every month, and you can wipe them off every month, and there will be mud or dirt or something on those meters the next month,” said Vaughn. “They are in the ground. I know myself, from where I read them. I read every one of them things. I’d wipe them off, I’d sling dirt out of the meter, and the next month, there would be dirt in the meter and it would be covered up with something.”

Mayor Moncrief reiterated to the council to tell customers to check their meter readings if there is a problem.

“If anybody come up to you, tell them to go write their meter readings down for a month and we’ll see what comes up.”