Buffalo Grove facing hurdles with water meter replacements

Buffalo Grove is nearly finished with its water meter replacement project, but the home stretch is proving arduous for the village, which is facing added costs, scheduling woes and difficulties gaining access to some homes.

The project, which began in June, involves installing almost 12,000 new water meters in residential, industrial and commercial buildings in the village.

According to the village, the outgoing meters are beyond their useful lives, and the new meters will provide more consistently accurate readings, in part because they have no moving internal parts that wear down over time.

Brett Robinson, the village's purchasing manager, told the village board this week that among the hurdles run into during the project is the additional $178,000 to $196,000 in costs associated with meeting the grounding requirements for the new meters. Those extra dollars, he said, would be taken from a $268,000 contingency fund.

Other challenges have involved scheduling and access to the meters.

As of Monday, 8,400 meters have been installed and another 2,400 are scheduled for installation. Among the more than 1,000 remaining are about 100 meters to which access is blocked, and others belonging to properrty owners the village has been unable to speak with, Robinson said.

"(In some cases) you cannot physically get to the meter," he said. "A water softener has been placed in front of it. A washer/dryer has been placed in front of it. It has been drywalled."

Robinson said three cards have been sent to all homeowners. Those who don't respond and make an appointment by April 4 will receive tags on their doors and face the possibility of a $100 fee.

There have also been integration problems between an online appointment scheduler and a call center residents can reach to set up an appointment.

To resolve the issue, the village staff is recommending shutting down the online scheduling and having people rely exclusively on the call center.