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Yes, the Farmville water bills are running late. However, town officials say they hope to have all of them sent out by the end of this week. Farmville Finance Director Julie Moore explained what was causing the problems during the town council’s Wednesday, Dec. 4 work session. 

“We are really working hard to get those out,” Moore said of the water bills. “One of the problems we’ve run into is like 49 of the meters that they’ve installed, they’re not reading. So they’re having to go out, and look at them to determine what’s going on, why they’re not reading and then we have close to 130 of the one inch meters that they’ve not installed. So we’re having to go back and re-read those, because they haven’t gotten them yet.” 

She’s referring to the deal agreed to late last year around this time by the town council. During their December 2023 meeting, the council approved a contract with ABM Building Solutions to address energy efficiency. The council wanted to be more energy efficient and save money where possible. ABM did a comprehensive technical audit, with results detailing areas where the town needed to make upgrades. Over a 20-year period, they projected significant savings in multiple areas. For example, by letting ABM make the changes and replacements with the water meters, Farmville would save $4.36 million over 20 years. That’s $4.36 million combined over 20 years, not annually. 

ABM detailed similar projected savings at every building and location operated by the town, looking at the HVAC systems, water meters, roof conditions, electric vehicle charging stations and yes, parking meters. 

What’s the problem with water bills? 

The new meters make it easier to collect data without having to physically visit each house. Each one has an antenna that’s powered by a battery. The plan is, once everything is hooked up, for those antennas to connect to the nearby cellular network and send all of the water meter data to the town system. The problem is that, as Moore mentioned last week, some of those meters aren’t working yet, which delays the billing process. She said the goal is to get all the bills out by this Friday. 

“We realize that’s later, so we’re going to push the due dates back for when they’re due,” Moore said. “And we’ve also tried to make sure that everyone’s aware that we’re running behind. So hopefully by the end of the month, we’ll have all the kinks worked out and then everyone will get a normal bill.”  

Town Manager Scott Davis said work is moving forward on the installation, to the point nearly all the meters have been set up to go active. Overall, he estimates between 90% to 95% of the meters are in. 

“Now it’s just a matter of making sure they’re operating correctly,” Davis said. “Just like any other construction project.” 

He praised the work being done, pointing out that the group has installed 3,000 new meters in roughly a month and a half. 

The project is just part of the larger ABM contract with Farmville. That includes things like the full electric vehicle charging stations at the Plaza Lot and Farmers’ Market, the thermostat replacements at the sports complex and the new parking meters we’ve covered before. There are multiple other work projects included in this, such as HVAC work at the sports complex, roof upgrades at the bus facility and LED lighting at the public works department.