 Sure. It looks innocent enough. But this toilet has an ugly secret-it's possessed. UPDATE: Mike Pickard, our local Water Services Inc. rep, read about our  problem before coming to work this morning. Soon after I opened the door, he showed up with his magic potion to drive away the toilet ghost.
It seems that the float was hanging up on the flapper. He said it's not unusual for a leaky commode to double or triple a water bill. Who knew?
I opened my water bill last week and freaked out. How could we have used 5100 gallons of water in 34 days in an office with two people, one sink and one commode??
I immediately took the bill next door to the Kountry Café. The proprietors, Kenny, Kathy and Peggy Howell, are experts in dealing with water bill issues. Besides, my meter is located on the inside wall of the Kountry Café. Don’t ask – I have no idea why it’s there- it just is. I wailed to Peggy that my bill was way out of whack.
She and I went to the back dining room to read my meter. Lo and behold, from August 27 to September 7, the office used 150 gallons of water. That seemed reasonable – about ten gallons a da y. Considering we have a five gallon tank on the commode, flushing and washing hands after use of the facilities, that seemed reasonable. Since the dial wasn’t ticking up crazily, it didn’t appear we have a leak. The bill was flat until June, spiked a bit, settled back in July and went totally nuts in August.
Armed with this information, I called Middlesboro, local “home” of my water company.
For those of you joining this saga in progress, a nutshell explanation: Water Services, Inc. headquartered in Middlesboro is a wholly owned subsidiary of Utilities, Inc. which is wholly owned by AIG Highstar. (Nothing to see – the AIG you've seen on TV getting zillions of taxpayer dollars only owns 12% of AIG Highstar).
Water Services, Inc. is getting a whomping big increase 51%– unless the Kentucky Public Service Commission remembers that the second word in their name is “public”- and that means customers, not out of state corporations and puts the brakes on them.
The nice lady heard my complaint and said someone would read my meter again. I scratched my head – wondering what a reading ten days after the initial reading would prove. The re-reading was performed and unsurprisingly, the company vouched for the accuracy of their previous reading.
When I reported this to the gang at the Kountry Café, Peggy told me she did the math and to use 5100 gallons in 34 days, I would have to flush 30 times a day, 7 days a week. That just isn’t possible.
I have come to the most logical conclusion I am able to reach when dealing with Water Services, Inc. To wit: My office is haunted by an intermittently appearing ghost with seriously malfunctioning ectoplasm.
That makes more sense than the Water Company being at fault.
Right? |
