The City of Great Bend has made recent efforts to be as transparent as possible with water bills and meter readings. At a Great Bend City Council meeting in April, the City outlined the entire process on how water rates are calculated.
Interim City Administrator George Kolb mentioned at the July 10th budget session that the City plans to allocate money over the years to automate the entire water meter system. Kolb noted an automated system would reduce labor and benefit the customers.
George Kolb Audio
Funding has been ongoing to replace roughly three percent of Great Bend’s aging water meters each year. The plan going forward would not only increase the replaced meters, but also make them automated meters to eliminate estimated bills.
Kolb noted the $2 million project would take several years to complete.
George Kolb Audio
With over 6,000 water meters that the City operates, it takes the one trained employee roughly a month to manually read all the meters. The new automated system would allow the reader to drive by the meter or be in close proximity of it to receive the reading. Water is billed to the nearest 1,000 gallons used.
The 2019 recommended budget allocates $250,000 to help fund the automated meter system.
A budget hearing is scheduled for August 20 before the final budget has to be submitted to the Barton County Clerk on August 25.