The discussions with the technician at the City of Kent revealed the city’s method that would be a slight alternative, but would not result in much savings. A contractor would have to come out and excavate the ground to get to the water pipes at each building. They would then install what is known as a “housing”. Then the City of Kent would come along and drop in a meter, each one of which would cost $500. At this point, the City of Kent would charge about $20,000 for each meter. When asked what this charge was for, the reply given was it was just a way for the city to make money; it is part of their fee schedule for this type of work, to according to Kent city code under the direction of the Department of Public Works and Community Development.
After much analysis and after many months of research, the Board has been advised that in the long run, this will never be a cost-effective solution to our problem. It was the consensus of the three contractors who met with the Board member that we are getting a very good deal right now with respect to our water costs, and they all strongly advised us not to proceed with the idea of going to sub-metering for our buildings. To put it briefly, they said that we would never recoup the initial outlay of our investment.
In addition to this, it must be kept in mind that even if we were to proceed, from that point forward into the future, we would be at the mercy of what ever sub-metering company we contracted with. No matter what company we negotiated with to read our meters for us, do the calculations regarding pro rating of each bill for each individual condominium unit, over time they could charge us whatever it was they wanted to. There would be no turning back.
