By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News correspondent
If the Mona Town meter reader cannot get to a meter the
first time a visit to the meter is made, then a $5 surcharge
will be added to the power or gas bill of the customer.
Sometimes a gas meter cannot be read on the first visit
and other times, a water meter cannot be read when the rest
of the town meters are done. This necessitates another day
and a special visit to that property.
In addition to a surcharge, council members will consider
a pay raise for the meter-reading job.
Some things that prevent the meter reader, Denise Pay,
from doing the job are unleashed dogs, fences built so the
meter cannot be reached, and even landscaping additions such
as wishing wells.
"If a dog, for example, is loose and is threatening, then
I have to leave and go back when the home owner is there,"
said Pay.
In other places, the water meter has been fenced inside
the property.
At still other sites, the water meter has been made part
of the landscaping and property owners have constructed
permanent apparatuses over the top. Those landscaping
gadgets must be removed so that the meter can be read.
"It is time to educate the public on what they need to do
to make their meters accessible to our meter reader," said
Doran Kay, council member.
Allen Pay, town water master, said he thought the council
should consider a raise for the meter reading job.
"There are now 30 new water meters and 33 more gas meters
which must be read each month," he said. "That represents a
12 percent increase but the pay is still the same as when
there were that many fewer meters."
The meters were read by the proper date, said Denise Pay,
so that the utility bills could be mailed during the first
week of the month.
Last month, council members instructed that Pay read the
meters by the 25th of the month each time so that Scott
Nelson, town secretary/treasurer, could prepare the bills
for mailing by the first of each month.
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