Water meter replacement project to begin

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It’s a project that will take a handful of months to complete but it’s finally about to get underway.

After nearly nine months worth of delays caused by supply chain issues, Van Wert’s water meter replacement project is on schedule to begin on Tuesday, June 20. The project was originally slated to begin last October and be complete by the winter holidays. In all, approximately 4,000 existing water meters are expected to be replaced during the upcoming process.

“We’re going to try to do this over a three month period, with 10 days in June to get started as a trial date, along with July, August and September,” Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming told city council last month. “The meters we install from June 20 to July 27, that group, once they’re installed, will be read and converted to monthly billing. Then we’ll do the same thing with meters installed in (the rest of) July, August and September. The goal is when the October 1 bill comes out, everyone in the city will be on 30-day monthly billing, so we’re going to hammer through it this summer.”

In August of 2022, Van Wert City Council approved the change from quarterly to monthly billing to coincide with the new water meters. The new radio-read meters will allow for accurate month-by-month billing. Rates are not expected to increase with the change.

By July, between 75-100 new water meters will be installed each day. In most cases, Van Wert water customers won’t actually see the new meters, as they’ll go where the existing meters are underground. Each residence will be without water for just a couple of minutes during the installation process.

In March of 2019, then-Mayor Jerry Mazur and City Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming recently gave Water Distribution Supervisor Bud Mengerink the green light to proceed with a pilot program of installing 250 new water meters. The pilot program was designed to allow for a complete evaluation of the new meters.