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As a result of the delays reading the water bills in Farmville, the majority will be higher than normal in December. But to balance that out, town officials will be providing a Christmas gift of sorts. 

“The last time (the meter) was read was Oct. 11,” said Farmville Finance Director Julie Moore. “Instead of being read on Nov. 11, it was read on Nov. 22, so that meant my bill was higher than (normal).” 

Speaking to the town council during their Wednesday, Dec. 11 meeting, Moore explained that because of the extra days, her office is looking at an average of how much the bills went up for everyone. Regular water users most likely will see an $8 to $10 increase in their bills for December. That’s not because of anything they did wrong, not because of anything other than the change in schedule this past month for reading the meters. And so, since it was the town’s fault the bills were delayed, Moore plans to offer a bit of a one-time discount. 

“We’re going to be giving everybody a discount, probably between $8 to $10 off your December bill, which will go out at the end of this month,” Moore said. “Everybody’s going to get it but it’s going to be a set amount.” 

Once Moore sees exactly how much the average increase was for bills this month, either the $8 to $10 as expected, higher or lower, then she’ll set a discount this time for the same amount, in order to balance things out. 

What caused the delay in Farmville? 

As for what caused the problem? A total of 49 of the town’s new water meters were not reading remotely. So the town staff had to go out and collect the information in person, house by house. 

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. 

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 some of those meters weren’t working yet as of last month, delaying the billing process. Now that problem has been addressed.