Owensville residents and business owners with a water meter inside their homes or store will need to call the vendor of a city-awarded contract to have a new Drive-By Radio Read System meter installed.

Schulte Supply was awarded the $330,368.19 bid to provide new radio readable meters on Feb. 11. The city will begin the mass water meter change-out program this month and residents and business owners with an inside meter will be required to set up an appointment with Schulte Supply by Friday, March 19, according to a letter being mailed out by the city this week.

This changing of meters will not result in any additional cost to the property owner, according to the letter from Jeff Kuhne, the city’s public works director. Installation of these meters will be completed by bid recipient Schulte Supplyof Edwardsville, Ill.

Kuhne’s letter explains that water meters are found in one of two places, either inside your home or business, usually in the basement, or outside in a meter pit.

If your water meter is outside in a meter pit, you do not need to take any action. Your meter will be changed and you may not even notice that it happened, the letter noted.

If the meter is inside your residence or business, you will be required to call Mike Sullivan with Schulte Supply at 1-618-719-7735. Sullivan and his people will take care of all scheduling and the installation of the new meter. Schulte Supply must have access to your meter to change it out. 

“Mr. Sullivan is flexible on scheduling and will work with you to get your meter change completed, including evenings and weekends,” according to the city’s letter.

The letter from the city makes a strong point noting the city of Owensville will not be making the appointment for you. 

Residents and business owners must call Schulte Supply directly to receive an appointment for the change out.

“These new water meters, along with a new meter reading system, will give us a more accurate accountability of our water usage and help reduce our water loss, which will benefit us all,” according to Kuhne’s letter. “With more water being captured we anticipate there could be a slight increase to some water bills while in other cases bills could be less depending on the accuracy of the old meter.”

Randy Blaske, the city’s administrator, said figures presented during discussions on new meters showed the city had a loss ratio of approximately 19 percent per month on water pumped but not captured on residential or business meters. It is estimated that there are up to 200 meters which remain inside private residences or businesses across the city.

The city bid out the replacement of meters in late October 2020 and has been reviewing options in recent regular meetings and committee meetings. Two other bids for the new metering system ranged from $360,919 to $527,544. Cost differences were affected primarily by warranties on moving parts, according to a memo from Kuhne to aldermen on Jan. 28.