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Frigid weather tested local meter readers
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Temps last Thursday morning bottomed out at minus 25 with windchills dipping to the minus 50 neighborhood. Weather conditions like those are not fit for man or beast. But it didn’t stop City of Caledonia employees from moving snow and reading meters.
 “We had crews out widening the streets last night and again today. And, we’ll have to get the last of the meter reading done real soon,” reported Tank Schroeder about noon Thursday. “It wasn’t too bad walking south Wednesday, but the wind was pretty sharp when I walked north.”
Schroeder was referring to the refreshing stroll he took last Wednesday reading water and electric meters. The approximately 1,400 water meters are read four times a year. And January is one of the four months they are read. The 1,500-some electric meters are read every month. The monthly electric meter reading responsibilities are shouldered by Schroeder and Tony Klug of the Street and Water Departments, along with Matt Blocker and Tim Evans of the Electric Department.
When it’s just the electric meters and “the going is good,” the four men can read all the meters in Caledonia in a day. But when the water meters are added to the mix and the snow is “up to their backsides,” it usually takes three days.
While electric meters are located outside most homes and businesses, the vast majority of water meters are inside. So the meter readers must knock on doors, and hope someone is home. If not, they leave a ticket on the door, which asks the resident to read his or her water meter and call the reading in to the clerk’s office.
“When I first started working here, I’d knock on a door, and if no one answered, and I knew the people living there, I’d go read the meter,” Schroeder said. “Things have changed. There are very few places where I do that anymore.”
A good portion of the retired persons are home during the day, Klug noted. So they are able to read those water meters.
“Many of the older folks love to have us stop in. It gives them someone to talk to.” Sometimes a batch of cookies has just been pulled out of the oven. “If I comment on how good the cookies smell, I usually am offered one or two,” Klug added with a smile. He also mentioned there’s been times when he’s been able to catch “The Price is Right” TV show at one residence, and pick up the action at the next home down the block.
When asked if a path shoveled to electric meters would make their jobs a little easier, especially when we experience winters like the past two years, they both replied that it would.
“It does get to be quite a workout trudging through knee-deep snow all day,” Schroeder said.
The official weather recording station is located at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Schroeder and Klug are responsible for taking the precipitation measurements. According to Klug, Caledonia received 39 inches of snow so far this winter. “And the snowiest part of the winter is yet to come,” Klug pointed out.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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