MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - More than 350 households in Meridian Township could soon have their faulty water meters replaced.

On March 2nd, Meridian Township launched a two-week long initiative to repair meters with defective bodies. The body of the meter is the lower part that measures water usage.

According to Meridian Township Finance Director Gretchen Gomolka, the defect affects approximately 415 meters in 356 households, as some households have multiple meters.

Meridian Township’s utility billing-which Gomolka oversees- and the public works departments will be working with a meter vendor and outside service company to replace the faulty meters.

“We're all kind of working together to get this off the ground and running and get all these faulty meters replaced before they fail,” said Gomolka. “Some have already failed, so we want to be proactive and get them all out of people's homes."

Residents affected have been receiving utility bills based on historical monthly estimates. The faulty meters can not be read properly and in come cases do not read at all as a result of the magnet on the body of the meter not sending out the signal to measure water.

“We don't know what (residents) have used,” said Gomolka. “We have to look at the historical usage. Once we replace the bodies, the magnets are back in tact and everything will continue reading normally.”

Since the meters are freezing and reading as zero usage, not over-reading, Meridian Township residents do not have to worry about being overcharged on their water bill.

Residents who are currently affected or could potentially be affected by faulty water meter bodies are asked to schedule an appointment with the Utility Billing Department.

Appointments can last anywhere between a half hour and hour. Utility workers replacing the faulty meters will also be knocking on doors of residents who don’t have appointments and may stop by an affected home if they are already in the neighborhood.

“The biggest concern is we don't want these (meters) to fail and have to all of sudden go out and fix them all and be estimating a bunch of people's readings,” Gomolka said. “If we can fix them before they break that's ideal.”