Grissom still reading meters after all these years
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As a meter reader, he once was able to call emergency personnel after noticing an elderly woman who was locked in her home had fallen. Had he not been there reading a meter that day, who knows what would have happened? He cites that experience as one of the more memorable during the past 30 years he has worked for McMinnville.
After joining the city in 1975, he became its first meter reader in the early 1980s and he holds the bragging rights as being one of the city’s longest employed.
Meter reading and billing had been a function of the electric system prior to the ’80s and Grissom transferred from working in sewer pump station maintenance to meter reading when the responsibilities changed.
Today, his job is provide water services to thousands of city residents and businesses and he does more turning on and off at the meter than meter reading, while two employees are currently the main meter readers. Grissom works with them to provide services and readings for more than 6,000 meters located from Rolling Hills to Mt. Green Estates to Newtown to the VFW.
Grissom’s job as the service person requires him to drive approximately 150 to 200 miles per week for those tasks alone. He said he gets between 10 and 30 service requests per week, keeps up with collections and runs miscellaneous errands.
During his time as a meter reader, he would have been responsible for covering some of 30 different routes that subsequently transfer into four different billing cycles. Water bills are administratively handled at the water department office at city hall.
While many jobs change over time, Grissom said meter reading is remarkably unaffected by changes in technology. With meter reading, paper and pencils are golden.
“It’s been the same for the past 20 years. We tried these little gadgets where you punch in the readings on them, but they always seemed to be more trouble than it’s worth,” he said. “Each sheet has a count on it and the sheets last two years,” he said of paper. “You can put two years worth of readings on one sheet.”
The job is something he plans to keep for awhile, and supervisors say they hope so. Grissom, who has been recognized as a former employee of the quarter, is known for his solid work ethic.
“He’s the kind of employee you wish there were 10 more of,” said city recorder Shirley Durham, who supervises the administrative functions of the water department office at city hall. “He’s always at work and he never complains.”