Panel briefed on utility billing issue

The California Board of Aldermen on Monday briefly discussed a meter-reading issue that resulted in higher bills for some city utility customers.

The city has two hand-held utility meter readers, which generally result in faster and more accurate meter readings. When last month's readings were to be made, there was a technical difficulty with one of the reading devices, aldermen were told.

As a result, there was a longer time period for many of the utility bills. This meant that rather than the usual billing for 30-31 days, some residents had a longer billing period. In some cases, this amounted to 41 days.

With the billing period a third longer than usual and a very cold month, some residents discovered their bills were much higher than usual.

The meter readers are now functioning properly. The upside of the situation is that those receiving higher bills in February will likely have lower bills in March, since the billing period will be shorter than usual, officials were told.

The 2016 Sanitary Sewer Project was discussed, following which the council approved a bid for the construction work to be done. Of the four bids received, the lowest bid of $579,800 from Lehman Construction, LLC, was accepted. According to Gary Davis, PE, of Bartlett and West Engineers, the bid was more than $93,000 less than the original estimate.

That project involves sewer lines on Howard and Moniteau streets and Versailles Avenue. In response to a request from the potential bidders at the pre-bid-conference on Jan. 4, the time for the construction was increased by 35 days. Construction is due to begin March 20, the first day of spring and to be completed by Aug. 6.

Under new business, the council approved donating 5 percent of the funds to be received in a settlement from TracFone to Missouri Municipal League. The amount to be received is expected to be $4,459.53. The funds will not be sent until the city receives the check.

The council discussed the next year's city budget. It goes into effect April 1. The original proposed budget requires a lot of review to bring the expected expenditures down by about $1.5 million to come within the amount of revenues expected to be received.

The council will take up the topic of the budget at the next regular monthly meeting, 7 p.m. March 6 at the California City Hall.