by Geoff Fox
As temperatures rise and fall, Town Manager Mike Faith is urging residents and business owners to keep an eye on their properties as the possibility of water leaks forming in the pipes.
He told town officials he put a post on the town’s social media page letting people know to check their crawl spaces, basements, and other spaces for leaks.
Faith also said if people see water on the town streets to call the town office to let them know during business hours.
There have been a few substantial water leaks including one in the basement of a house on Jackson Street. The homeowner was not there at the time.
Faith said there could have been upwards of 30,000 gallons of water in the basement.
Luckily, the town was able to get to the property to shut the water off and let the owner know.
Another leak occurred at a business along Main Street, Faith added.
That brought up Faith reminding everyone of a policy the town has regarding water leaks.
He said as long as the water is going through the meter, people have to pay for that water.
If the water doesn’t go into the sewer system to get treated, then there could be talk of a sewer credit, he added.
“That’s all the ordinance allows us to do,” he said. “Once the water goes through the meter, you got to pay for it.”
Because of having to pay for whatever goes through the meter, Faith said it’s important for residents to watch for those leaks as well as repair the leaks.
The town has a system with their water meters where they can be read electronically as town crews drive by the property.
Those devices give a detailed report if there is a high usage from the meter, Faith said.
Town crews recently spent a day driving around looking at the readings to see where the usage was up and why it was so high.
Crews can’t do that all the time, but Faith said because the usage was up, they made the effort to do so.
“If we detect a high number or high usage, we will contact the property owner and try to get that resolved,” he said.
Faith also noted a previous administration agreed to have new meters to be installed around town and be off the properties so if there’s an issue, they would be able to turn the water off from off the property instead of having to go inside the house if someone hasn’t paid their water bill.
At Trulieve, however, their water meter is inside the building so the town does not have access to the meter.
Faith said that meter can’t be read for high usage and there had been a “pretty bad leak” there a year or two ago.
He said when the contractor comes to town to repair a water leak on Blue Hill, the town would have them put a radio meter reader outside the building so the town has access to the meter.
The meter has always been inside the building back to when Fleetwood occupied the building.
Officials said it should have been changed out while the town owned the building and were unsure why it wasn’t.
Councilman David Kerns made a motion to have the radio meter outside the Trulieve building with Councilman Josh McCusker seconding it. It was a unanimous decision.
