A major goal of the Village’s water department is to be able to obtain an actual reading of water meter usage each and every month. Using an actual read each month helps both the consumer and the Village better budget and track water usage.
Our ordinances do allow for the Village to use estimated readings for billing under certain circumstances.
The January bills are being mailed this week. We were able to get actual readings for approximately 60% of the water accounts in the Village. Approximately 40% of the accounts had to be estimated. If you see an asterisk (*) on your water bill, that is the indicator that your bill was estimated.
The most common reason we have to estimate bills is access to meters due to winter weather conditions. Even though a snow or ice storm may have passed before we read the meters, the remaining snow and ice on the ground may have meters covered.
Opening meter pits in frigid temperatures may result in damage to the meters, so we avoid opening the meter pits if possible. Unfortunately, many of our meter pits have to be opened in order to get an actual read. If we have a period of frigid temperatures, we may estimate the readings to prevent causing damage to our meters and infrastructure.
The street department reads meters for billing purposes around the 11th – 15th of each month. We do adjust reading schedules, when possible, if we are experiencing winter weather with frigid temperatures.
This change can result in a different number of days that your bill covers, and since our water bills are based on usage, your bill could be more in a month with a longer billing period.
The typical billing period is approximately 28-31 days. We did adjust our reading schedule for the January bill, resulting in a billing period of 30-45 days.
We are always happy to take your questions regarding your water bills. If you think you have a problem with your water bill that the longer billing period and/or an estimation would not address, please feel free to contact our office.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!
