Delays and technical issues have clouded Armstrong’s planned water meter shadow billing period.
Council’s original intention on the project, which began in August 2012, was to implement two billing periods per year: January to June and July to December.
But technical challenges and resulting time delays means only one shadow period can happen this year as opposed to the desired two.
“One of the issues is we ended up with close to 100 more outdoor metered pits to be installed than we had first contemplated,” said Coun. John Trainor.
“In order to read meters in the wintertime, you’re going to have to get at them. If they’re in a pit in the ground, chances are they’ll be under snow.”
In a report to council, 46 out of an approximate 1,800 homes had yet to have water meters installed, meaning the project is about 97 per cent completed.
Of those 46 homes, as of June 16, 37 had outdoor meter pits that needed to be installed; seven were new homes with meters that needed touchpads installed, and two were “under determination.”
As of June 23, said Trainor, the pit installations were being knocked down “by two a day,” and only one home now needed a touchpad installed.
Council unanimously passed a motion calling for residential shadow billing using actual water consumption data be implemented for the periods of April 1 to Sept. 30, 2014, Oct. 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 and April 1 to Sept. 30, 2015.
Full consumption-based billing will start for the period of Oct. 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016.
