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<br />MR. OGILVIE: Well; itis 89,000. We are probably using 125;000 acre- <br />feet for those customers, ro~ghly. It's maybe 10 percent or a little <br />more. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />MR. FETCHER: The reason I asked this question is because the City <br />Council of Steamboat Springs has. agonized over this problem now for <br />two years. The night before last at a formal council meeting (and I <br />think our board will be interested in this), they rejected metering in <br />spite of the very strong argument in favor. One of the main favorable <br />arguments in our particular area is the decrease in cost of the capital <br />facilities required to provide treated water and also to treat the <br />waste water. In spite of these very strong arguments, the council said, <br />"We are basically rejecting the metering and, in effect, rejecting state <br />and federal funding." <br /> <br />I thought at least the board would be interested to know this. Some of <br />the arguments may sound.~illy: to_you. This:year we have so much snow over <br />there that some of the people say, "We'll have to shovel it all winter. <br />I want to be able to use it." <br /> <br />MR. OGILVIE: I certainly concur that there are many people who will <br />reject it. There are many people in Denver who reject the concept of <br />total metering. This is a factor. We had a hearing on total metering. <br />We held it in the City Council chambers. You made reference to the <br />city council over there. Our city.chambers was full to overflowing. <br />Everybody was there. There was pretty much of an overtone of "We don't <br />need metering." Notwithstanding this fact, the points that you raised <br />with respect to saving water are valid. <br /> <br />MR. FETCHER: Is it your thought in working with the Public. Service and <br />Mountain Bell that.some of the problems and costs of reading the meters <br />could be reduced by electronic means? <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />MR. OGILVIE: That is exactly what we have in mind. We have met with <br />the Bell Telephone people here and we have met with Bell Laboratories <br />from New York where they are doing:a great deal of research; We think <br />they are probably on the threshold of having a communications break- <br />through. The information that we get is that the television tube, <br />which gets a lot of criticism, is a medium which is in most homes right <br />now, and through the process of using that tube and a sophisticated <br />metering process, you might be able to have immediate access from your <br />customers so that they are aware of the day-to-day position that they <br />are in relative to using water, using power, and:so that they can use <br />that tube for other factors as well, such as police protection, many <br />other means of communication. We are right on the threshold of that. <br />type of use of that medium. We think that this is something worth- <br />while looking at. <br /> <br />-9-- <br />