Beacon City Water Bills

The City of Beacon has been implementing new water billing software. It is also replacing its water meters with new meters that can be read by radio. These meters can be read from the street eliminating the need for a meter reader to go onto the water customer’s property. Reading is also more efficient. All of the City’s 4200 meters can be read in two days by one person, instead of the 3 months it took almost two people to read with the old meters. Older external reading devices prone malfunction were also replaced.

Unfortunately, transition to the new system has not gone as planned. The contractor hired to install the radio read meters was not able to gain access to a number of homes and some to the meters it installed did not work. Transition to the billing software was more problematic. After delaying the July billing to September to make certain the billing was correct, staff discovered, after mailing the bills that the system generated several bills for some customers and none for others. To get back on schedule and make certain those who did not receive a bill in September got one, customers were billed in October. These bills were for the period after the period billed for in September. Billing is now back on schedule. Water bills will now be sent out at the end of each quarter as in the past.