Increased theft of water meter, manhole covers leaves holes in

Tag : Metal Cast
high gas prices.
"The thieves won't come to us because we'll turn them in," saidCarl Huish, of CBH Trucking and Salvage in Farmington.
Some scrap yards reported they have not encountered the stolenmetal utility lids.
Farmington Police said local scrap companies have been cooperativewith the investigation, many offering officers an opportunity tosearch the property for the stolen materials, Detective Lt. SteveBurch said.
The lack of local resale options suggests the surge in stolen lidsdiffers from the theft of copper wire and other valuable scrapmetals, which often are taken and resold locally to quickly get asmall amount of money.
Hitting the city budget
The water meter lid that a scrap yard pays a few dollars for willcost the city as much as $275 to replace, an unexpected $27,500pinned onto this month's budget.
"I am concerned about the expense of this," Farmington City ManagerRob Mayes said. "We're doing all we can to catch the people doingit and to put a stop to this loss."
As a first step, the city is working to reduce the value of theutility covers. Stolen lids are being replaced with a new cast ironlids, which weigh more than 100 pounds and carry little scrapvalue.
The recent spike in manhole cover thefts mirrors a new trend incommunities across the country, where metal lids composed of avariety of different materials are being stolen and sold for smallchange.
"Everybody needs the supply. Trying to get them in here quickenough from the vendors is the issue," Smaka said. "It's probablytaking us a week to two weeks to get materials in here to replaceand they seem to be stealing them faster than we can get them inhere."
Protecting the public
While crews wait for new covers, many of the city's 5,000 manholesand 15,000 water meters pose hazards on Farmington sidewalks, anissue the city is working to address.
"On Apache Street last week, we had plywood and pallets and trafficcones over openings so people would not fall in them," Smaka said."As fast as we can, we're trying to fix them, but as a minimumwe're trying to cover them to try and protect the public fromfalling into an opening."
One injury caused by an open manhole was reported: A Farmington mansuffered minor injuries July 17 after crashing his bicycle into anuncovered hole on the 2500 block of E. 20th Street, police said.
"Given the number of thefts that we've had, we certainly encouragethe public to be aware of any open manholes," Mayes said. "Weendeavor to get these replaced as quickly as possible."
Tracking thieves
Farmington Police investigating the spike in the stolen covers areturning to residents, hoping to get a report of suspicious activityinvolving the water meter or manhole covers, Detective Burch said.
"You can't stake out manhole covers and water meter covers," hesaid. "We'll get a call from a citizen, we'll get a license platenumber, because this isn't something you go tote around."
James Monteleone: jmonteleone@daily-times.com