Before summer comes to an end, the Town of Hamlet is already looking to prevent frozen water lines and broken meters this winter Water and Street Superintendent Fred Rowe told the town council Wednesday that the town’s in the process of replacing meters, but quite a few are still broken.
One particular area of concern for council members was a local trailer park. Rowe says that while it’s under control now, town crews were called to the site six or seven times last winter to deal with issues there.
Council President Dave Kesvormas called on the property’s manager to remind residents to take some steps now to prevent problems later. “I think that maybe we need to send some correspondence to Richard [Ellis] right now, while it’s still warm out, while people still have a little bit of money and Christmas is not impeding, about, you know, it’s their responsibility for heat tape and all that other good stuff,” Kesvormas said.
While the trailer park is charged $120 for each meter the town needs to replace, Kesvormas recommended taking the effort a step further, “What I don’t want to have happen is somebody knock on Fred’s door on a Sunday afternoon when he’s watching football or doing whatever he does on his off-time, mad, to be standing at his doorstep, tapping their foot wanting him to go down there right now, to go unfreeze their house because they don’t have tape. And maybe we should have a clear and concise policy if that is the case and Fred does get dispatched on a weekend, maybe we bill for that because we’ve done it ahead of time.”
He noted that these types of issues also take away time from the Rowe’s regular duties. To obtain the replacement meters, Hamlet has purchased several that are no longer needed in Kouts, and also plans to contact LaCrosse about the availability of additional meters.
