Byrdstown Begins Training With New Radio Control Water Meters

Training beginning with Byrdstown officials this week on the new remote water meter reading system.

Mayor Sam Gibson said a representative from the company supplying the meters flew out from Texas to train city staff on how to use them. Gibson said they will be able to scan the new water meters with a computer from the inside of a car.

“We can read all of them maybe in a day, in a day and a half,” Gibson said. “And that’s going to make a, you know, lessen our, all of our workload and make things more efficient also. So it’s going to be different, it’s going to be new for us, but it’s going to be a, it’s going to be a step forward.”

Gibson said he bought a used car meant for employees to use when they take readings from the new meters. He said it takes the city a month to find and read all of the current water meters.

“You’d be surprised how much time in the past that we’ve spent with our metal detector out trying to find old meters where somebody’s done a little bit of a construction work around their house or around their property, and they’ve covered the meter up and we just can’t find them,” Gibson said. “You know, they may be two or three feet deep and we think we know about where they’re at, but we, you know, we can’t find them.”

Gibson said the city is looking to adjust the warranty for the new meters as the it requires the meters to be attached to their own pit lids.

“None of our lids have a hole in them,” Gibson said. “And a third of our lids are plastic that we could drill a hole through, but the other two-thirds are concrete that we can’t.”

Gibson said many citizens have asked him if the city will have new employment opportunities reading the meters.

“We’re probably going to just in-house, we’ll be the ones reading the meters,” Gibson said. “And mainly the first, especially the first few times will be our people that are familiar with the meters. Because to make sure that everything does work properly and everything.”