Bad water meters led to billing errors

WINSTED — Winsted’s water department has begun repairing more than 200 water meters throughout the town after a failure with a radio transmitting device on the units led to billing errors for numerous customers.

Winsted’s director of public works, James Rotondo, told the Water & Sewer Commission at their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 10, that some 250 water meters now need to be repaired after the devices’ meter interface unit (MIU) failed to function properly. The units collect water usage data and then transmit that information to the department’s offsite data collectors.

Because of the faulty MIUs, the water department has not been receiving usage information for each of the customers affected by the failure.

“And this means the bills went out with no usage rate,� Rotondo said, leading to incorrect quarterly statements and department employees visiting each home or business affected for a manual meter reading.

There are two types of fees that make up the water and sewer bills the town sends out on a quarterly basis to its customers: a base rate, which is a flat fee, and a usage rate.

Rotondo said over the last several weeks the water department has been fielding numerous calls from residents frustrated and concerned about the billing errors.

“They just want to be able to pay their bills,� he said.

Rotondo said nine of the units were replaced last month.

“But we’ve put a plan together and we are really going to be ramping that up now over the next month,� Rotondo said. “And our goal is to get them all fixed by the next quarter.�

Customers that have been identified as having a faulty MIU will be notified of the problem, and their meters will then be scheduled for repair as soon as possible.

Rotondo said the computer billing software that works with the MIUs also required some adjustments, and those modifications have also been made.