Software bug fouls water bills, accounts

About 100 people in Taneytown received water bills that were double what they should have been.

Mayor Henry Heine said problems with the town's computer software led to the mistake.

"Because of the Y2K [software glitch] we have had a lot of difficulty," Heine said. "First we had problems printing the bills properly. Out of the clear blue, we had a problem with changing the meters. This has never happened before."

The city is already trying to work out bugs with balancing the city's checkbook with new accounting software. That is separate from the meter problem. Heine said that due to problems with the accounting software, the city has not had a correctly balanced checkbook in two years. The city also does the payroll by computer, along with purchasing orders, and has had no problems in those areas.

At the monthly City Council meeting Monday, Councilwoman Jackie Boisvert and Heine said they were receiving phone calls from people with excessive bills. City Clerk and Treasurer Linda Hess said that everyone who had received incorrect water bills would have the chance to receive credit or get a refund.

Since several people notified the city, City Manager Patrick Nield said that the city staff reviewed every account to see if there was a pattern. The city's software program was calculating old meter readings, plus the current readings, Nield said.

"We reissued water bills to those that were wrong and we're putting a notification into our newsletter," Heine said.

Several years ago, Heine said, the city started reading the meters with an electronic device that saves the Department of Water officials' time. An estimated 85 percent of the city's 1,200 meters have already been switched from manually read meters to radio-read meters, Heine said. He added that now utility employees can drive by homes and a device picks up the reading.

"Instead of minutes of reading each meter, it takes seconds," Nield said.

Heine said that the most recent change of 100 manual readers went awry.

"It was just a fluke," Heine said. "We think we've got everything now, but we're not really sure."

Heine said the city has since contacted the software company and the problem has been corrected.

"The only thing we can do now is keep a close eye on that situation during the next quarter," Heine said.

Carroll County Online

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2002