Lake Worth Utility Checks Irrigation Meter

Yesterday 5 Lake Worth utility trucks drove onto our property and all drivers descended from their trucks to take a look at our irrigation meter. The way in which they all swooped in, it reminded me of the night Ramiccio and the Chamber (an organization that says it is NOT political) called SWAT on us for petitioning adjacent to the Cultural Plaza.

The Utility had a work-order to check out the meter because someone thought it was reading low. Don't want to cheat the City, after all it was reported by Burton & Associates, the auditors, that the City is losing $1.2 million over 17 months through potential/probable/definite errors, one of which is faulty meters. It seems that the meter reader had difficulty reading it as the face was covered with some dirt.

When new meters were installed in the city, some of the multipliers were incorrectly entered which resulted in lost revenue. Our meter was put in approximately 5 to 7 years ago.

We irrigate one time a week just like everyone else, other than the City that is. Their sprinklers are going at all sorts of screwy times. We have 5 zones that are on for 12 minutes each, which does not suffice during droughts but we deal with it. I turn off the sprinklers when we have a lot of rain thus our irrigation usage is low during the rainy season.

I am encouraged, however, that the Utility has considered the points brought up in the Audit and has taken direct and immediate action:

• provide the city with accounts that have potential errors

• field tests

• physical inspections

• other on-site investigations to determine if there is a problem.

Now all we have to do is get our billing department straightened out. The new commission already voted down the plan on a 3 to 2 vote to outsource it.