First – wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to spending time with my family.
This is a follow up to my appearance at the last City Council meeting. During our discussion there was a comparison of “problems†that occurred during the Mount Vernon meter upgrade project.
I contacted Mount Vernon’s Water Utility Superintendent this week to learn if there were problems during the project. I believe the Mount Vernon project was completed about 4 years ago. He said the number of repairs required were substantially less than was referenced during the Council meeting. He explained that the Mount Vernon / JCI contract had similar language to the Evansville/JCI Contract relative to any repairs needed during the meter installation. For example, if the sub-contractor damaged the customer’s water line within two feet of the meter pit, the sub-contractor was responsible for the repairs.
The Superintendent also noted that Mt. Vernon’s water system is different than Evansville’s system. Mt. Vernon does not have a separate “Curb Stops†(Shut off valves). He said that he wished Mount Vernon had separate Curb Stops similar to Evansville’s design. But since Mount Vernon does not have Curb Stops, the Utility’s water line runs from the Water Main to the Meter Pit. The Utility maintains that segment of the water line and has easement rights to access that portion of the water line. That segment of the water line would have been installed by the utility. He said the customer is responsible for the Meter Pit plus the water line that runs from the Meter to the house or building. In Evansville’s system, the customer’s water line runs from the Curb Stop to the house or building, including the meter pit. This would have been installed by the property owner at the time the water was connected the the Utility’s shut off valve at the Curb Stop.
The Superintendent said that the Utility did run into problems initially with the Contractor’s employees being too rough and breaking water lines that ran from the Meter to the Water Main. This is a different contractor than the Evansville Utility is using for the meter upgrade project. I also, learned from JCI that they no longer use that sub-contractor. Early in the project, Mount Vernon’s sub-contractor used non-union labor that caused the repair issues. Once this was identified, Mount Vernon and Johnson Controls worked through a change in the sub-contractor’s work force. For the Evansville project, Hydromax is performing the meter and transmitter installations. Hydromax uses Licensed Plumbers. Approximately 50% are Hydromax employees and 50% are hired from the Union Hall.
In the Mount Vernon project, most of the required repairs were on City side of the meter and the repairs were performed by the Water Utility. I learned that the repairs were fairly easy fixes and could be made in the meter pit and did not entail extensive work. The Contractor took care of any repairs on the Customer Side of the meter pit. While the superintendent didn’t have a count, he said the number of meter repairs home owners had to make were relatively small. In those cases, the property owner was responsible for repairing the water lines. Mount Vernon didn’t have special programs to help home owners fund water line repairs. We continue to explore options to assist homeowners who are unable to make repairs to their water lines / meter pits. Once we get a significant portion of the re-inspections completed, we will have a better insight and can provide an update and analysis of what found during the re-inspection process.
Overall, the Mount Vernon Superintendent said the City was very pleased with their Meter Upgrade Project.
I hope this information was helpful.
Allen
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