East Medina County Special Utility District is in the process of converting more than 3,000 water meters to radio read type meters that will eliminate the need for customers to read their meters each month. The District currently has more than 700 radio read meters in place and will complete the installation of the remaining meters by the end of November 2019. All customers will begin receiving monthly bills from the District as soon as their meter has been changed. In addition to customers no longer being required to read their own meter each month, the new meters have the ability to store several months of daily usage information. This information can be used to help customers with high usage understand how and when water was consumed and registered on the meter.
The District is also in the process of upgrading their billing system to one designed to improve customer service. The new billing system will be able to permit customers to have limited access to their account information to review usage and make online payments. Customers will be able to provide payment through the use of a debit/credit card, an electronic check and setup automatic payments for those customers that prefer this method of billing.
The District approved a rate increase to be effective on bills due on January 1, 2020 for water used in December 2019 to fund increases in the cost of operations and these projects. This rate increase is the first increase to support the increased cost of operations since 2010. The need for this increase was based in part, to the loss of revenues from leases for the use of our elevated tanks for internet antennas and the cancellation of water leases by the Edwards Aquifer Authority for the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Program. Based on average account use, the increase will be $5.40 per month with $3 of the total increase in the monthly service availability charge for all accounts. There is no increase in the cost of water for the lowest block usage rate.
Both the District wide conversion to radio read meters and upgrade of the billing system are scheduled for completion by December 1, 2019.
East Medina County Special Utility District provides a safe and reliable source of drinking water to the rural communities of Castroville, LaCoste, Lytle, Natalia, Devine and Quihi.
