All water meters being replaced in Vidalia

VIDALIA, Ga. (WTOC) - A big project is in the works in Vidalia. Next month, the city’s public works department will start to switch out all the water meters in city limits.

The city says there are at least 6,500 water meters in the city and they will be replaced one at a time. The city is using money from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for the $3 million project.

In the next week, the city says people will start getting notices in the mail. The notice will come out a week or two before crews are expected to show up to install the new meter.

Folks with the public works department say they spend five days a week checking meters and manually uploading the reading to a computer system. They say this does cause a lot of errors.

The new meters will upload their reading electronically, which they expect will be more reliable.

“The city may have some increased revenues because some of these meters are pretty old and they may not be reading accurately, both on the customers side and the city’s side. So, the idea is hopefully we have more accurate reads for the customer and the city, so the billing is correct,” said Tony Hall, with Public Works in Vidalia.

Hall says once the new meters are installed customers will have access to an app where they can see their usage, in real time. This way customers can have a better idea of what their bill might look like before it gets sent out.

Hall says the project is expected to be done by July.

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