INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Indian River County water officials will review their agreement to provide water service to the Countryside Mobile Home Park west of Vero Beach.
The Countryside community has 649 individual units that will soon be connected to the county’s water system. But at issue is who will read the water meters.
Resident Ed Nelson asked the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday to reconsider its March 2 vote that would have had the mobile home park’s property management team reading the meters. Instead, he and the majority of the residents want the county to handle the meter reading, he said.
The community already has established water and sewer lines, which are privately owned and maintained. As such, county water officials believed it best to have the owner’s permission to enter the community for emergency waterline work.
As to reading the meters, however, by the March 2 board meeting, the county had not worked out a firm agreement with the property owner, Equity Life Styles Properties, to come onto the community’s property to read the individual lot’s water meters.
Cindy Corrente, the assistant director of utilities, told commissioners that she has been talking with ELS’s representatives to address the issue.
The owner “might be able to reconsider,” Corrente said.
Jeff Leeds, a representative for the property owner, said that Equity Life Styles Properties would prefer to have the county in charge of reading the meters. However, the company needed to review its policies.
County Attorney Alan Polackwich and the utilities department are expected to review the agreement with ELS and could report back at the next Board of County Commissioner’s meeting.