Water Meters

The problem: A paving stone barely covered an open water meter vault in Upper Fells Point. The back story: Finding a parking spot near Patterson Park can be a challenge. But one location on Bank Street presented a hidden danger for Janice Evans of Nottingham. About two months ago, she parked in the 2200 block of Bank St., just east of North Patterson Park Avenue, to visit a friend. Evans had to get out of her vehicle somewhat awkwardly because the tree well had been walled in with bricks.

Anybody who has ever tried to figure out a Baltimore water bill likely had a simple reaction to news last week that the city's Department of Public Works was going to improve billing procedures and upgrade its water meters: It's about time. The City Council is scheduled to take up a measure tonight sponsored by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke that would end the practice of estimating bills, which has led to sticker shock for many water customers who have faced inexplicably huge charges.

Baltimore's Department of Public Works plans to overhaul the way it reads hundreds of thousands of water meters and bill customers after getting complaints that estimated readings were leading to unfairly high bills. Officials described the upgrades Tuesday at a City Council committee hearing where members unanimously approved legislation barring estimated water bills for residential customers, said its sponsor, Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke. "I feel certain this is going to address the majority of the kinds of spikes we have seen," she said of high bills.

Rudi Bethke Sr., a retired master blacksmith who produced parts not found in a catalog, died of cancer Feb. 1 at the Virtua Garden State Hospital in Marlton, N.J. The former Gardenville resident was 69. During his 22 years making snowplow parts and water meter-reading devices for Baltimore City agencies, Mr. Bethke was the go-to man when a metal component broke. Newspaper articles said he could make almost anything, although the one task he did not perform was shoeing a horse. "An imposing, broad-shouldered man," said a 2004 Baltimore Sun article, he "saunters through the city garage like John Wayne in a cowboy movie."

Howard County's Department of Public Works will begin a four-year program to update some of its aging infrastructure by replacing the radio transmitters on residents' water meters. The transmitters send data to meter-reading trucks to compute water bills. The current devices use batteries with a 10-year life span, while the replacements should last 20 years. Bureau of Utilities staff will schedule appointments with residents whose water meter is inside their home. For more information, call 410-313-4900 or go to howardcountymd.

Metal-scavenging thieves surprised George Farrant and his neighbors one recent morning. He woke up at 4:30 a.m. and was able to use his water. But when his wife got up for a 6 a.m. jog, nothing came out of the taps. And the Farrants weren't the only ones. Baltimore police are investigating the theft of at least 16 water meters Sept. 10 from Briarclift Road in the Hunting Ridge neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore. They were presumably taken for their copper and brass parts. Around the region, metal objects such as railings, air conditioning parts and manhole covers are often stolen, and law enforcement officials suspect they are sold as scrap.

BOLINAS, CALIF. - - Blessed with a quaint downtown and some of the most impressive scenery on the Pacific Coast, this town is largely unknown even in San Francisco, 20 miles south. To keep that from changing, residents have a habit of tearing down highway signs that so much as mention Bolinas. The same urge to remain pristine has led to one of the most extreme anti-growth policies in the nation. For more than 30 years, Bolinas has refused to authorize a single new water meter, needed for hooking up to the town water supply.

Apartment residents hate unmetered water billing because it takes money out of their pockets each month. Landlords love it because it saves them money. Conservationists aren't sure whether it saves or wastes precious water. And, across the country, regulators struggle with whether they should limit or outlaw it for the sake of renters. Now Howard County's political leaders are about to wrestle with the issue as they launch an investigation of unmetered water-billing practices in apartment and condominium complexes.

150 years ago in The SunAugust 28, 1849: The Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad --The amount of business now doing on this road, far exceeds, both in passenger and tonnage accounts, that of former years. The stock of the company has been increased, and when the connecting railroad with Harrisburg shall have been finished, which will be in a short time, the present revenue of the road will be more than doubled.100 years ago in The SunAugust 30, 1899: The Water Department will take immediate steps to have water meters placed in every building in Baltimore County using city water.

Union Bridge officials announced the resignation of the town's clerk-treasurer yesterday, six weeks after learning that she had sent estimated bills to water customers whose meters were broken, in some cases for years.Town Council members have begun going over records of the town's 300 water customers. They have pledged to work out individual agreements that could involve credits to customers whose current usage indicates they may have been overcharged in the past. Customers who may have been undercharged on estimated bills will not be asked to repay the difference.