After living in his Trigg County home for 21 years, James Leyendecker found a water bill from the Barkley Lake Water Commission for February-to-March usage totaled $725.90. Leyendecker said that his bill usually reaches $17 per month.

Fueled by a water plant technician’s suggestion of a clerical error by the billing department, Leyendecker challenged his bill at the April 9 commissioner’s meeting. “How can I use that much water in one month?” he said. “I want an answer.”

Leyendecker said that on one information sheet he received, he observed the current read on the meter showed 145,500 gallons of water, while the previous usage showed 14,200 gallons of water. He said that the discrepancy in the bill totaled the nearly 131,000-gallon difference in a possible decimal point error. “The computer was set wrong, or the operator was set wrong or the meter was off,” he said. “I’m saying that there is something wrong with the numbers.”

Billing department representative Sandy Holder said that the district processes water sales in hundreds of gallons and that decimals are added in the automatic billing process. “There is nothing wrong with the numbers,” she said.

District Superintendent Terry Goins said that he inspected Leyendecker’s meter and found no discrepancy or error in operation. He asked Engineer Ricky Oakley to inspect the meter at the board meeting.

Oakley said that the meter appeared to have recorded its last operational volume correctly. Later he added, “What’s so goofy about this is that the meter worked fine for two years, and appears to work fine now. Odds are that during the period between February 28 and March 20 it was working correctly.”

Leyendecker, a former police officer, discounted the possibility of theft from an outside spigot. He added that he surveyed his property and found no signs of leakage inside or out.

For the rest of this story, read this week's Cadiz Record.