Elgin man wins water meter assembly contest

Baseball's All Star game has the home run derby.

Basketball has a three-point contest.

So what's the equivalent for municipal water department employees?

A showdown to see who can assemble a functioning residential water meter in the shortest time.

And an Elgin water department worker recently took first place in the national competition, Meter Madness.

Eric Kresmery, a 14-year veteran with the city's water department, won the contest at the American Water Works Association annual convention in Atlanta with a time of 40.6 seconds.

It was Kresmery's first time entering.

He finished third in the state and only the top two finishers qualified for the national round. But the state's first place finisher was going to be out of town.

"I just got lucky enough to get bumped up," said the Geneva resident and meter technician, who acknowledged he was a bit nervous on the big stage. "It's a huge convention center and there's probably 500 people watching,"

Lois Sherry, AWWA volunteer technical support coordinator, said the contest is growing.

"I think it's great Eric won," Sherry said. "Every year, we get more people participating."

So what's the key besides practice?

"Finding all your pieces. Identifying all your pieces right away," Kresmery said.

Each round begins with a bucket full of 15 meter pieces, along with six extra pieces.

Picking up the wrong piece or failing to find the right bolt can cost precious seconds.

Contestants get a wrench and screwdriver, but Kresmery said only the wrench is needed. After the meter is assembled, contest officials test it.

Eight to 10 seconds are added to the time if the meter leaks, doesn't work or has a loose bolt.

Kresmery said one contestant in the final round completed the meter in 35.6 seconds, but it didn't work and he was penalized 10 seconds.

"Had his meter spun, he would have had a world record," Kresmery said.

Kresmery practiced about two weeks before the state meet, doing about 20 run-throughs each day.

Now, he and others are training on next year's Neptune meter, which is slightly different from the Badger model used this year.

The city uses the Badger model and in most area homes. Back in the day, Kresmery and others used to refurbish the meters, but now it's cheaper to just buy new ones.

"The nice part about having Eric this year is we trained against each other," said Nick Caralis, a water meter maintenance worker who has competed in the state contest two years. "It worked out nice."

The pair would time each other and observe for clues on how to shave seconds off their times. They were at 80 and 90 seconds and thought that was good.

Come next year, Kresmery is guaranteed a trip to San Diego because he won this year.

Caralis must take the long way, winning the state competition before he can move on.

"Some day you'll make it to the big show," Kresmery told Caralis, all in good fun, of course.

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