2 weeks Ago
The town has seen an estimated $261,070 in revenue go down the drain. That’s because for almost 20 years East Lyme underbilled a plaza at 135 Boston Post Road, which is home to It’s a Wash Laundromat, charging it just one-tenth of its actual water and sewer usage after a meter was incorrectly programmed in 2002. The shortfall amounts to 4.
4 million gallons of unbilled water and sewer use, according to department documents. That’s a loss of roughly $272,570 to the town’s Water and Sewer Department coffers. Utilities Engineer Matthew Garneau told the Water and Sewer Commission the discrepancy came to light after a meter reading on April 11.
The single meter covered the entire building, which also includes a restaurant and several small businesses. “Someone in our billing department was wise enough to say, ‘This is a laundromat. How is it possible that the reading’s so little?'” he said.
At the meeting, Richard Giusti of Village Farm Realty LLC, the owner of plaza, emphasized he did not install the meter and was not aware he was being undercharged. “I live on a well, so I have no idea what usage should be for the space,” he said. Department documents show the meter was programmed to read in the thousands of gallons rather than the ten thousands.
That means the device on April 11 showed 47,000 gallons had been used when it should have recorded 470,000 gallons. Water and Sewer Department Chief Operating Officer Ben North said 47,000 gallons is the typical residential usage for a family of four. The town can only seek repayment of incorrect bills going back one year.
Giusti agreed at Tuesday’s meeting to pay $11,500 for a roughly 12-month period after arguing the department’s initial bill for $14,967 was an undue hardship and could be a violation of a state law that prohibits the town from recouping losses more than a year old. “There was nothing nefarious going on,” Giusti said. “We did not try to steal water in any way, shape or form.
” Assessor’s records show Giusti, of Rhode Island, purchased the property in 1997 for $325,000. It was appraised at $863,800 in 2021. North on Wednesday said he doesn’t know why it took decades for the billing discrepancy to come to light.
“I’ve been here a few years now,” he said. “I don’t know why my predecessors didn’t act on it.” The chief operating officer was promoted in July of last year after joining the department in 2019 as assistant utility director.
He said levels of water usage reported by the incorrectly programmed meter could have seemed reasonable during the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses were not fully operational. “Once we got out of COVID and were seeing the same kind of numbers, we really started questioning why that was,” he said. North said the department’s recent meter calibration and replacement initiative helped identify the problem and will help prevent similar situations in the future.
The program requires any meter over 20 years old to be replaced and meters for the utility’s largest customers to be calibrated every two years. The replacement of large meters began last July. He said the new meters use technology that transmits information wirelessly and more precisely.
They can be programmed remotely. “It was a difficult project and we recognized we were going to be clearing up some inaccuracies,” he said. “We’re glad we did solve the problem, and we’re going to move forward with a much more successful operation and much more resilient system for measuring water usage.
” He said the meter replacement program did not expose any other similarly notable discrepancies. “This was a big one,” he said. e.
[email protected] Editor’s note: This article was updated to clarify the customer was underbilled for water and sewer usage. Elizabeth Regan, The Day, New London, Conn.
(c)2024 The Day (New London, Conn.) Visit The Day (New London, Conn.) at www.
theday.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC..
