FERRIDAY, La. — Lola Pitt wants her water meter read correctly. &uot;One month you get a regular bill, the next they say you used zero gallons, and the next they issue you a big bill,&uot; said Pitt, a Ferriday resident. &uot;I&160;can’t complain — they’ve corrected it every time I’ve had a problem. I just want my meter read every time.&uot;

Problems such as Pitt’s have the Town of Ferriday taking steps to insure broken water meters are fixed and that meters are read regularly and correctly, local officials said.

Unread or incorrectly read water meters can cause customers to be billed the $25 minimum rate one month and a large bill the next, said several residents at the Ferriday Town Council’s July 11 meeting.

Broken meters also drain taxpayers’ money. During fiscal year 1997-98, the latest year for which figures were available, Ferriday lost $117,000 in revenue due to broken water meters.

So Sensus, a Monroe company, is going to conduct a 90-day &uot;pilot study&uot; to see which meters are not working and whether they fell into disrepair due to age or were intentionally broken, McGlothin said after a Friday meeting with Sensus representatives.

&uot;After that, we’ll have a better idea how much replacing these meters is going to cost the town,&uot; he said.

An existing ordinance states customers will be charged for intentionally broken water meters on their property – and it will be enforced, McGlothin added. On July 11 the Town Council appointed new Councilman Jerome Harris Sr., a former town water superintendent, to head an effort to make sure water meters were being read correctly. On Friday, Harris said he will still have to meet with McGlothin to make sure they agree on how the problem could best be corrected.

But Harris added he is in favor of hiring a former Water Department employee who would have no other tasks but to read water meters.

That person would notify, by radio, an employee at the department’s office who would be responsible for keeping detailed logs of the readings.

Two town employees who now read the meters must also perform other tasks, including repairing water leaks, McGlothin said, adding he believes the current meter readers make mistakes because they &uot;try to read the meters too fast.&uot;

In the July 11 meeting, the council gave Harris until December to put in place a system for more accurately reading the meters.

&uot;We’ve got a problem, but I&160;believe something can be done about it if we work together,&uot; Harris said.

Until then Pitt, whose water bill is usually about $33 and whose highest recent bill was $67, is reading her water meter herself just in case. &uot;I just want to pay for what I&160;use,&uot; she said.