City of Bridgeport Engineer Tom Brown is reminding residents that if they see individuals in and around water meters on their property, those individuals are supposed to be there. Brown said that for up to the next two months, contractors will be doing a mass water meter change.

 

“The meter change is being done throughout the city and the customer base,” Brown said. “We’re replacing roughly 50 percent of those meters.”

 

CI Thornburg, which is based out of Huntington and has a sales office just off of Route 73 locally, is handling the project by contracting the workout through Advanced Utility Services. Jared Cummons, the city’s superintendent of public utilities, said the change out started Tuesday and that the contracted company currently has four to five individuals handling the project. He expects more workers – two to three more – to arrive next week.

 

“Those individuals will be on individual’s property and they should have my business card with them,” said Cummons, for those who want identification.

 

According to Cummons, it is the policy of Advanced Utility Services to know on the doors of all homes where meter changes are going to be made. They will have vests and shirts on with the company logos as well and some of the trucks will also have the company logo on them too.

 

Cummons said roughly 2,000 meters will be replaced. Almost all of those meters are within the city limits. Black Stallion Drive and Hillhaven, and a few near the lakes, are some outside the city limits.

 

So why the need to make the change? Brown said it has nothing to do with existing meters going bad.

 

“This will allow the city to do automatic meter reads more efficiently,” said Brown. “These new meters will let us, basically put up a red flag, if there’s an anomaly. It eliminates the possibility where you come to the end of the month and you’ve used 10,000 gallons and have to wonder what happened. It will also let us know if there’s no water being used, which could signal a bad meter situation. This will help us and it will help the resident.”

 

If anyone has any concerns or is still unsure, Cummons said he can be reached at 304-842-8212. Brown said Amy Kelley can also be contacted at 304-842-8200.