KTKA

"That's the one back there," said Jacques Muller, a meter reader as he was pointing to a dog which chased him.

We're going along as a Westar crew reads meters in Topeka, a tougher job than you might think.

"Just skip over it for now and just come back and read it a little later," said Eric Van Becelaere, a Westar meter reader supervisor, as he tells one of his employees to skip a meter and keep going.

So what happens if the meter cannot be read?

"Like the issue that we had with the dog, he was unable to get to that meter, we are going to try to send somebody out on that particular meter, and try to read it in the next couple days," said Van Becelaere.

Will it have to be estimated until then?

"Until we would be able to try to read the meter," said Van Becelaere.

Because they can't get into some backyards to read meters, they have to use binoculars.

But readers keep going, reading hundreds of meters each day.

"On an average day it averages out to the 760 range, per meter reader, yes," said Van Becelaere.

When Westar can't get to a meter, and can't see it with binoculars, it estimates your reading, and your bill. Westar told us in one day almost 8,500 meters were read, 31 were estimated, and 6 had to be re-read to make sure they were accurate. Crews read about 208,000 meters each month.

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