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Vavenby residents question use of water meters at public meeting

A public meeting to provide information on water meters on May 21 at Vavenby Community Hall was well attended
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Peter Hughes looks on as (r) Arden Bolton lists some of the goods in the goody bags that residents received at the Vavenby public meeting on May 21.

Robyn Rexin

A public meeting held on Thursday, May 21 at the Vavenby Community Hall was well attended. Residents had signed a petition against the installation of water meters so TNRD Area A representative Carol Schaffer felt there was a need to talk about it. TNRD water system representatives Peter Hughes and Arden Bolton were at the meeting to present the information.

First topic on the agenda was why use water meters. Meters promote conservation, support user-pay principle, aid in leak detection, and provide accurate flow data to be used for sizing future improvements like infiltration.

When water problems were discussed it was explained how the meters could detect a leak right away and its location. It would not take days to find the broken pipe as it has sometimes been the case previously. Hughes went over recent leaks from as far back as 2013 and the cost. This was shown on a chart, listing other small towns in the area for comparison.

The meters will cost approximately $325,000 to install. The TNRD has applied for the gas tax fund (GSPF) to get 100 per cent of the funding.

Residents were concerned about the monthly rate homeowners would be charged. The community was told that there would be a flat rate for a couple of years and then it would be analyzed and decided.

Water quality was next on the agenda and then future improvements. One future need Vavenby has is its filtration system.

Questions came throughout the presentation and after. There were many disgruntled residents.

Bags were handed out at the end of the meeting, one per household. The bags contained water bottles, pamphlets, and other objects.