Selma Mayor George Evans, who also serves as superintendent for the water board, said Saturday that people who filed claims for damage done to their homes by new water meters will be paid.

People need more than just verbal affirmation though. The installation of more than 7,000 new water meters throughout the city caused more than $20,000 worth of damage to people’s homes.

The claims were filed for busted pipes, water damage done to carpet and wood flooring and ruined hot water heaters.
Evans said people will be paid, but he didn’t have a time frame of when those checks would come through from Selma Water Works.

We understand that it takes time for legal matters, but citizens that had to pay for damage done to their homes out of pocket need to know for sure that their money is coming to them in a timely matter.

Evans said a verbal agreement was made with the contracting company, which is Mitchell’s Contracting out of Wilcox County, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.

Selma Water Works needs to get a signed agreement from the contractors saying that they are going to pay for all of the damage done when they installed the meters.

The process started more than a year ago, and reports of damage came soon after they started installing them. When pipes started bursting and hot water heaters started exploding Selma Water Works should have made the contractors reevaluate how they were installing them.

Had the contractors taken more time to look at how they were putting the meters in, it could have saved themselves and everyone else a lot of money.

Once the problems started, the process should have been put on hold until a solution could be found. Selma is a historic city with aging homes and buildings.

The contractor and city should have thought about that before putting the meters in and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage that came out of pocket from the people whose homes were damaged. If people are indeed going to have their claims paid for, then Selma Waters Works needs to communicate with its customers.

Replacing busted pipes or having new floors put in is no cheap task, and the people who had to pay for it deserve something for their patience and trouble they have had to go through since this process started last summer.

Evans also said that all of the meters have not been installed yet due to the contract being terminated with Mitchell’s Contracting.

Selma Water Works should get the rest of the new water meters installed as soon as possible but more deliberately, by communicating potential problems with owners beforehand.

While the meters were installed make it easier on Selma Water Works to get more accurate readings, it has caused much trouble for paying customers.

They shouldn’t have to wait around with no answer for months wondering if the money they had to pay out of pocket for something they didn’t cause to be paid back.