So....I'm sitting here

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

eating a chicken and Swiss sandwich and drinking a Sprite when my doorbell rings.

 

A couple from down the street are standing there on the porch smiling.  They were walking up the street (they told me) when they noticed my water meter box was running full bore.  I thanked then, checked it out, and called the emergency number.

 

ON a Sunday!

 

A truck was in my driveway in about 25 minutes.  An hour later my meter box is out of the ground, the water is turned off, pipes and valves, and dirt are all over the place and they are siphoning the water out of the hole.  I was told that it was on their side and wouldn't cost me anything.  37 year old pipe that is original plastic has broken.....on both sides of the valve.

 

I asked how that happened and was told old things eventually break and leak.  (I can relate to that on a more personal basis.)

 

Another half hour they had it fixed and told me that the hole would be filled in by 10:00 tomorrow after a town inspector approves the work.

 

I'm satisfied.

 

Now here's what I learned:  Prescott Valley doesn't have any repair people on the pay roll....nor almost any other department, either.  LEOs are ours, but the Sheriff, Fire and Paramedics, road maintenance, snow removal and grounds crews and many others are on a contract basis.  They compete annually (except for the first two) and give us great rates.  They make more per job than town employees would but they don'y have any retirement plans, union dues, insurance, or any other bennies paid for by the town.  The town ensures that the contracted employer provides all that.

 

We get more for less, the employees get better pay, the contractors compete (and even cooperate with each other), and as I see it, everyone benefits from the system.  Very little politics get involved.

 

Why doesn't every municipality and government agency do the same sort of thing?

 

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

Why indeed !

But then we would have less to Grump about !!!

 

Jabez Cowboy

[J-BAR #18287]

Free market capitalism without government interference is ALWAYS the most efficient way to deliver services.  Wish others recognized that.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

3 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

 Very little politics get involved

There's your answer. 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

11 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

 

 

Why doesn't every municipality and government agency do the same sort of thing?

 

Why don't they?
Simple.
It makes sense.

Just like every municipality I've ever worked for, every hospital as well ...

If it saves time, saves money, improves the bottom line, improves productivity, increases employee satisfaction, decreases sick time, reduces down time, if it reduces on the job injuries, if it makes anything better ... and most especially ...

IF IT MAKES SENSE ...

It's against policy!

[Three Foot Johnson]

I've been on well water all my life, so I guess I don't understand how water meters work. The meters I've seen are located beside the house, and have a cover over the face to protect the dial or LCD readout. Question one - how do you just happen to notice a small dial/readout maybe 3" in diameter, with a cover over it, running full bore from the street/sidewalk? Question two - if the break was on the utilities side, no water was going through the meter... I guess...? So why/how would the meter be registering excessive water usage?

[Alpo]

Maybe they do that up north, where it gets real cold in the winter and you have this thing I've heard of called a frost line?

 

Here in Florida the water comes in from the street, and a line maybe a foot deep, to the water meter, which is maybe 10 foot into the yard from the street. Then the line runs from the meter into the house - again a foot or less under the surface of the ground.

 

I was curious how the neighbors could see the water meter going zippity doo-dah. Maybe water was squirting up out of the ground by the meter.

 

Just does not seem that Arizona water lines would be buried very deep. And I do not understand how the neighbor could see the meter.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

I've been on well water all my life, so I guess I don't understand how water meters work. The meters I've seen are located beside the house, and have a cover over the face to protect the dial or LCD readout. Question one - how do you just happen to notice a small dial/readout maybe 3" in diameter, with a cover over it, running full bore from the street/sidewalk? Question two - if the break was on the utilities side, no water was going through the meter... I guess...? So why/how would the meter be registering excessive water usage?

 

 

That was my first thought as well.  "How in the world could they see the meter?"  Then I went back and reread the OP.  Here is what he wrote: "water meter box was running full bore."  Not "water meter."  So they saw water pouring up from the box itself.   

When I worked for a handyman I spent a day in the rain digging out a leak.  Same kind of thing, the old fitting - of a type that hadn't been used in 30 years because it failed so often - had sprung a leak.  It was a 2", maybe 2 1/2 inch off of a box that fed a 7 house cul-de-sac.  Water was pouring out.  Just after I got down to it as city utility truck came by, "Is that on our side or your side?" the guys asked.  "Our side, dammit," said I.  They grinned and wished me luck.  Had to dig down about 4 feet to get to it.  Then call the boss to find out what he wanted me to do.  Took another hour of calling plumbing supply houses to get the fitting we needed.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

No one can see the meter, but they could see a five inch high geyser spouting out the south side of the box four feet from the street pavement and a river running down the hill to my driveway/.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I NEED things to gripe about.  It's about the only hobby I can afford any more.

[Subdeacon Joe]

17 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I NEED things to gripe about.  It's about the only hobby I can afford any more.

 

 

You could kill two birds with one stone by jumping to conclusions.  

[Pat Riot]

I have mixed feelings about municipal services being contracted out. Usually a whole bunch of people lose jobs in the municipality.
Contractors then compete for jobs.

City Supervisors and such all of a sudden have nicer homes and cars. 
 

Get my drift? 
 

You need to watch these things like a hawk and have one good ethical oversight team. 

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

Up here the Water line is buried 6 feet deep and comes into the home under the basement foundation ( in my case ) it's about 9 feet under the surface it comes up into the mechanical room ( furnace, water heater is there too ) the meter is mounted to the wall and main supply line goes in one side ... The water usage is measured on the out-flow side ... There is a small sended (puck) mounted on the outside of the house which can be read by driving by with-in 200 meters, with a special receiver ...

 

Jabez Cowboy  

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

You could kill two birds with one stone by jumping to conclusions.  

Too old to jump.  Makes my knees ache.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bgavin]

My "Big Leak" resulted from the idiot plumber who installed the supply line from the street to my house.
In 1960 they used galvanized pipe.
The idiot part came about when the plumber installed a galvanized coupling and two segments of pipe under the concrete driveway.

Fast forward, and it rusted out and started leaking big time.
Before this happened, I had replaced the original 1960 concrete with a spiffy new slab...
Damned if I was to going to destroy that slab, so I ran a new line up the side of the house and into the crawl space.
This was the full 1 1/4" maximum allowed by the meter and the county.

I necked it down in the crawl space to 3/4" lines for distribution around the house and yard, then finally to 1/2" lines for the fixtures.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

19 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I have mixed feelings about municipal services being contracted out. Usually a whole bunch of people lose jobs in the municipality.
Contractors then compete for jobs.

City Supervisors and such all of a sudden have nicer homes and cars. 
 

Get my drift? 
 

You need to watch these things like a hawk and have one good ethical oversight team. 

First, we are not a city, we are a town.  Lots of differences.

 

Second, we have the most open municipal government I have ever seen...or even heard of.

 

Third, every major decision is brought before the town council and discussed totally.  They even carry some things over if it takes too long or needs documented clarification.  Nothing is done on the spur of the moment, and nothing is done without a consensus of the community. 

 

Fourth, no one can lose jobs that have never existed since the town was founded, and none of the council have benefitted from any project.  (We are having an issue with out mayor who broke some campaign promises and has been attempting to bypass the rules in favor of some developer friends of his, and it may result on a non-conservative mayor come November.

 

Finally, we have a Citizens' Academy about three times a year.

 

This ia 30 hour group meeting three hours every Wednesday for ten weeks.  A small meal is provided by a different restaurant each week at no cost to the attendees nor the town.  Each session has someone from the different town and / or county agencies that provides services.  All questions are answered immediately or at the next session if information is not available on the spot.  All of the agencies are open pretty much on a "drop in" basis and everything is explained.

 

In the eight years I've lived here I have attended two of the Academies.  They are comfortingly open and, frankly, quite extraordinary in many ways.

 

Finally, in a town of about 45,000 inhabitants, i find it absolutely amazing how many of our "civil servants" recognize me on sight (and many even know my name) and how many know me personally enough to stop and talk.

 

It is a wonderful town to live in and I am very happy to live here.

 

P.S. there are dozens of gun and hunting shops, gun smiths and engravers, and leather shops within a half hour of me.  Prescott, the next town over, reportedly has more FFL licensed dealers per capita than any other place in America.  Every day is like Christmas and the Fourth of July combined.

 

My name is Forty Rod and I approved this message and there ain't nobody paid me to write it.

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

21 hours ago, Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129 said:

Up here the Water line is buried 6 feet deep and comes into the home under the basement foundation ( in my case ) it's about 9 feet under the surface it comes up into the mechanical room ( furnace, water heater is there too ) the meter is mounted to the wall and main supply line goes in one side ... The water usage is measured on the out-flow side ... There is a small sended (puck) mounted on the outside of the house which can be read by driving by with-in 200 meters, with a special receiver ...

 

Jabez Cowboy  

 

Canadians are so.........sensible.

 

LL

[Pat Riot]

8 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

First, we are not a city, we are a town.  Lots of differences.

 

Second, we have the most open municipal government I have ever seen...or even heard of.

 

Third, every major decision is brought before the town council and discussed totally.  They even carry some things over if it takes too long or needs documented clarification.  Nothing is done on the spur of the moment, and nothing is done without a consensus of the community. 

 

Fourth, no one can lose jobs that have never existed since the town was founded, and none of the council have benefitted from any project.  (We are having an issue with out mayor who broke some campaign promises and has been attempting to bypass the rules in favor of some developer friends of his, and it may result on a non-conservative mayor come November.

 

Finally, we have a Citizens' Academy about three times a year.

 

This ia 30 hour group meeting three hours every Wednesday for ten weeks.  A small meal is provided by a different restaurant each week at no cost to the attendees nor the town.  Each session has someone from the different town and / or county agencies that provides services.  All questions are answered immediately or at the next session if information is not available on the spot.  All of the agencies are open pretty much on a "drop in" basis and everything is explained.

 

In the eight years I've lived here I have attended two of the Academies.  They are comfortingly open and, frankly, quite extraordinary in many ways.

 

Finally, in a town of about 45,000 inhabitants, i find it absolutely amazing how many of our "civil servants" recognize me on sight (and many even know my name) and how many know me personally enough to stop and talk.

 

It is a wonderful town to live in and I am very happy to live here.

 

P.S. there are dozens of gun and hunting shops, gun smiths and engravers, and leather shops within a half hour of me.  Prescott, the next town over, reportedly has more FFL licensed dealers per capita than any other place in America.  Every day is like Christmas and the Fourth of July combined.

 

My name is Forty Rod and I approved this message and there ain't nobody paid me to write it.

Uh-huh. Okay. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

My water usage jumped 9,000 gallons one time. I went to the meter and the well was full of water. They sent a guy out the next day and it was dry. 
I called American Leak Detection. I used them one time in Florida after a local plumber said my leak was under the bathroom floor. I didn’t trust his guess. The ALD guy came out with a suitcase of equipment and said, It’s under the pad alright but your screened floor not the bathroom”, and he drew an X. “Dig here”

Called another plumber and he Jack hammered a hole in the pad. Got down the the sand and said, “No leak here. The sand ain’t wet”

I told him to keep digging. The hole was in the bottom of the pipe not more than 3 inches from the X. 

No American Leak Detection guy near here so It took several days to get one from Grand Junction. After a couple of hours he told me it was for sure out at the meter. So I took the backhoe and dug down till I found the pipe and shoveled my way under the meter and hit mud, then a stream of water. The water company came out the next day and replaced the meter. American Leak Detection is a good company!