Friday, June 7, 2002
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Friday, June 7, 2002 |
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Reader wants all the facts known In regards to your article concerning the Union City water dispute, your article did not include all of the facts. On March 4, 1997, Old Virginia received a letter from the Public Services Director stating that "The master meter at the entrance will be repaired in the near future. The total of the individual meters in the complex will be subtracted from the consumption on the master meter and any difference in consumption will be billed to the Homeowners Association." The next correspondence from the public services director was received approximately four and a half years later, August 27, 2001. In this letter the director stated "This is to advise the association of the Master Meter that was replaced at your location on Friday, August 27, 2001. The master meter will be audited each month and excess water will be billed monthly on a separate utility bill. "Please note you will received your first bill in October 2001. If you have any questions on your billing, please call Glenda Norton, Billing Coordinator at City Hall 770-964-2288." The first master meter bill was for Sept. 11-Oct. 22, 2001. The consumption was 2054 gallons and the billed amount was $812.75. After questioning this bill and not receiving a good explanation, Old Virginia paid the bill less sewage. The next master meter bill was for the period Oct.22 -Nov. 19, 2001 and the consumption was 5,480 gallons. The billed amount was $1638.43. These bills were over and above the consumption being billed to the 196 individual residents and the irrigation meters. I personally made calls to the billing clerk, the public service director,and paid a visit to the city administrator. The city administrator advised me to write a letter and she would explain in detail. I wrote a letter to the City Administrator on January 2, 2002. The letter read in part as follows: "I am writing on behalf of the 196 homeowners of Old Virginia Condominiums. The water bills that we are receiving as a results of the installation of or repair of the master meter are simply outrageous. Ms. Carter, something is wrong, I need a detail explanation in writing so that I can present it to the Board of Directors and the other Homeowners. "Monthly consumption, according to the bills, has went from 2054 to 5480 to 7101." I did not receive a response from the City Administrator until February 8. My letter was delivered to Carter on January 2, 2002. The response from the City Administrator read in part as follows: "We had a reading taken at 2:30a.m and 3:30a.m. on January 15, 2002, when there shouldn't be a considerable amount of water usage in the complex. During the hour, 1200 gallons of water ran through the master meter. This is an excessive amount of water usage for this time of morning. This indicates that there is a bad leak in one of the water lines in the complex. I would suggest that you contact a company that is equipped with instruments for locating water leaks as soon as possible. The longer a leak of this nature exists, the greater the water loss and higher cost to the Association for the water." Once we were made aware of possible leaks, we took immediate action. We contracted with not one but three different leak detection companies and inspected every individual meter on the property. We found several faulty meters that were not properly registering, two major leaks on branch lines feeding from the main coming into the complex and 38 meters that were covered with mud and other debris. We believe that these meters were not being read on a monthly basis. We repaired the leaks and reported the faulty meters to the city. We have met with the City Council on two occasions and offered to submit our water main repair bills which total $3677.60. We have also asked the City to follow the same procedures that the City of Atlanta and United Water uses when a leak is discovered. The customer makes the repairs and the City makes an adjustment for water loss and not consumed. We felt that this was a reasonable request since the City of Union City is a customer of the City of Atlanta and we are a customer of the City of Union City. My "no-show" at the Union City Council meeting (May 21) was not an attempt to flout, frustrate, or rebuff the council and I sincerely appreciate the Mayor's benevolence. However, I did not have any figures or proposal to present other than the repair bills. The first bill since repairs and replacement of faulty meters was not received until May 31. I did not feel that it would have been in the best interest of the Homeowners I serve to present some arbitrary proposal not based on facts. It is my belief that to arrive at a solution you must first identify the problem, collect data, organize the data, review the data, and then make recommendations or submit a proposal. It is apparent that the Public Service Department knew of a problem in March 1997 when the decision was made to install a master meter at Old Virginia. We at Old Virginia were not made aware of the problem (water leaks) until February 2002. We immediately took action and have advised the public service department, the city administrator, the city council and the mayor. Our prayer is that the City of Union City will continue to work with us. Thank you for taking time to read the Old Virginia side of the story. James Walker, Sr. President Old Virginia Unit Owners Association
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