FEATURED COLUMNIST
People Love WaterSmart
Convenient, User-Friendly, Great Information!
T
he Soquel Creek Water District’s new WaterSmart Customer Portal is an easy-to-use, free online tool giving you more control over your water use and billing, leak detection, and more. Along with our new, intelligent meters (i-Meters) which are now installed for most of our customers, the WaterSmart Customer Portal is part of the District’s overall upgrade to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure. This is a huge improvement over the District’s former electronic metering system that only produced one water consumption reading per month. With daily and hourly water consumption information, you now have access to the most up-to-date technology for managing water use and billing. Leak detection is much more timely, compared to the old system, by notifying customers within as little as 48-72 hours (in most cases) after a potential leak is detected. The Portal has the ability to notify you via email, text, or phone alert about potential water leaks in your system, so you can find and fix that leak before it becomes a bigger problem. Once registered, you can also set-up alerts for when your water use level or your bill amount reaches your designated thresholds. That’s kind of an “early warning system” to give you important information sooner so you can minimize water loss due to a leak, reduce potential water damage, and get fewer surprises in your water bills. Plus, with a single log-in “Poll” from page 21 “This community, especially those who are active voters, are very clearly saying they want planning for rail service to continue,” she concluded. “Highway 1 commuters, including essential workers, need an option to free themselves of gridlock that robs them of time with their families,” Segal continued. “A zero-emissions light rail service will give our county an important tool in the fight against climate change. Rail service will also help improve public transportation for local seniors and those with disabilities.” The greatest support appeared to be in supervisorial District 4, which includes Watsonville, where residents deal with daily traffic jams on Highway 1 to and from work. The least support appeared to be in
By Rebecca Gold Rubin
you’ll be able to pay your water bill, see how much water your irrigation system uses, identify watersaving opportunities, access conservation resources like waterwise landscaping ideas, and even apply for conservation rebates. Many District customers are already signed up for this user-friendly, self-service web portal, and we’re hearing great things about their experience. “I easily set up an alert for my water use threshold, and it’s already been superhelpful on several occasions,” says Paul N., a District water customer in Aptos. “Early-on I got an alert about going over the threshold, and that prompted me to go out and find a leak in my irrigation system. More recently, I had some cement work done, and when the crew was using a lot of water — there
District 1, which includes Live Oak, which would access the train, and the Summit, which would not, and District 2, where train tracks run through Aptos. The most opposition appeared to be in District 2, which includes Capitola, which is bisected by train tracks, and Aptos, followed by District 1, then District 5, Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley, which are the farthest from the branch line. The announcement of the poll results did not include breakdowns of the “strongly” and “somewhat” in each supervisorial district. The Times requested that information and was told it is not available. The poll asked about two other options: 19 percent were in favor of pausing the electric rail planning and keep building a trail alongside the rail line, and 17 percent were in favor of removing track and converting the corridor into a trail for walking and biking. n
was a text alerting me to that unusually high use!” Paul notes that the system is easy to use and has provided him with everything he needs to monitor his water use. For JoAnn G., a water customer
in Aptos, the new system is a vast improvement over her earlier efforts to track water use. “I used to save my paper water bills for 12 months at a time, so I could compare month-to-month and see where I’m over-using. Now, it’s all right at my fingertips!” “WaterSmart” page 26
In the Garden
ACROSS
1. Great divide 6. World’s oldest national broadcaster 9. Pasturelands 13. Chinese fruit 14. #9 Across, sing. 15. Clemency 16. One in advertising 17. “____ the land of the free ...” 18. Characteristic of birds 19. *Ongoing job in the garden 21. *Without synthetic fertilizers 23. 2nd tallest bird 24. Theatrical production 25. Curiosity killed it?
28. Additionally 30. Capital of Poland 35. Passage into a mine 37. Prefix in levorotary 39. Mid-century modern, e.g. 40. Toothy wheel 41. *Some are heirlooms 43. Make like a cat 44. Erasable programmable read only memory 46. Stanislavski’s rifle, e.g. 47. Unwanted correspondence 48. Motionless 50. Catch-22 52. “Are you sure?” in a text 53. Freight horse cart 55. Opposite of don’ts 57. *6 or more hours of sunshine
61. *Radicchio or frisée 65. On foot 66. Negative vote 68. 2020 NFL MVP 69. Morrison’s “The ____” 70. Hockey great Bobby 71. Respectable and quiet 72. Sports award 73. Affirmative response 74. Infernos 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
DOWN
Old bathtub foot Opposite of seek Ne plus ultra *Opposite of #57 Across Minimum, pl. Influencer’s journal *Stinging pollinator Holiday song Bulgarian money
10. Julia Roberts’ Academy Awardwinning role 11. Popular smoothie berry 12. Update an iPod 15. Inhabitant of Hungary 20. Nothing, pl. 22. Like sashimi 24. Lack of money 25. *Tomato supports 26. Highly skilled 27. Miss America’s headdress 29. Slowly leak 31. Moves at the gym 32. Monument to Buddha 33. Orderly arrangement 34. *Wiggly plowers 36. Faster than a walk 38. *Some plants and flowers emit a good one
42. *Type of digger 45. Centers, old-fashioned 49. French vineyard 51. *Last of 3 numbers on a bag of fertilizer 54. Be a pest 56. Washington, e.g. 57. Grow dim 58. Extraterrestrials’ rides 59. Pilot’s stunt 60. Type of parrot 61. “Musical” constellation 62. Russian mountain chain 63. *Type of garden hose that saves space 64. Goes with “odds” 67. Am is to I as ____ is to we © Statepoint Media
Answers on 31 »
www.tpgonlinedaily.com Aptos Times / April 1st 2021 / 25
