January 18, 2018
Cold makes water meters a hot issue
By Jerry W. Kram
There are approximately 400 customers for municipal water in the City of Parshall. All but a handful of the those accounts had new water meters installed in 2017 as the city switched over to a wireless automated billing system.
Then Old Man Winter rolled into town.
The cold snap that brought temperatures south of 30 below damaged eight of the new meters. Public Works Supervisor Al Christianson said at least half and probably all of the meters were frozen up in the cold snap.
“A lot of people in Parshall have only been here a few years and this is the first time they have seen weather like this,” Christianson said. “You mention ‘heat tape’ and a lot of them say ‘What’s that?’”
Christianson said there are some trailers in town that don’t even had skirting, and with the cold temperatures even heat tape won’t keep the pipes and meters from freezing up.
Then Old Man Winter rolled into town.
The cold snap that brought temperatures south of 30 below damaged eight of the new meters. Public Works Supervisor Al Christianson said at least half and probably all of the meters were frozen up in the cold snap.
“A lot of people in Parshall have only been here a few years and this is the first time they have seen weather like this,” Christianson said. “You mention ‘heat tape’ and a lot of them say ‘What’s that?’”
Christianson said there are some trailers in town that don’t even had skirting, and with the cold temperatures even heat tape won’t keep the pipes and meters from freezing up.
