Sterling Carroll, of the Florida Rural Water Association, discusses water meters with the city council.

LIVE OAK, Fla. — The Live Oak City Council was still trying to resolve high water bills for city residents at Tuesday’s meeting.

Chairman Bennie Thomas said he wants the council to amend the city’s water leakage adjustment policy to better help residents with water bills that are high due to a water leak.

According to the policy, excess usage, due to a property-side leak, must exceed the normal usage by at least 1,000 percent to qualify for an adjustment.

During public comments, Alfredia Cook said some of those requirements for the water adjustment policy are too high to be beneficial to residents.

“Whose bill is going to reach 1,000 percent?” Cook asked. “If it has to reach 1,000 percent, it would be impossible.”

Thomas said that is what the council plans to address in amending the policy.

“It is not strong enough to help the residents,” Thomas said.

Cook said her bill went up last month and is now back to the normal rate with no adjustments.

Councilman Frank Davis, who suggested having a workshop to go over possible changes to the policy, said he would like a theory on how that is possible.

He added that his theory is that something is not working and would like an answer.

“You know we don’t have any knowledge of that, Frank,” City Manager Ron Williams said. “We are not going to ask anybody to come up here and try to make up an answer.”

Sterling Carroll, of the Florida Rural Water Association, was at the meeting to discuss the effectiveness of the water meters.

He said the positive displacement meters used by the city are ones installed in every community in the United States.

According to Carroll, water meters cannot run fast, they can only slow down over time.

“They wear out and water will flow out faster than it can be measured because you have grit, you have sand and other things,” Carroll said.

He added meters should be replaced every seven years.

Carroll said if there is an issue with the water meter, it would favor the customer, not the city.

He added one of the warnings to customers receiving new water meters is that their bill could go up.

“Based upon my engineering experience and the decades I’ve been in this field, these are the best meters for measuring flows for residential because they are direct read,” Carroll said. “They measure every gallon that goes through and they can only go slower.”

Norman Crawford said that he does not agree with Carroll that new water meters will make the bill increase.

“When my meter was changed, my bill went down,” Crawford said.

City staff will bring back proposed changes to the board at a later date.