Bits and Pieces

Some claim that smart water meters pose a hazard
The Oro Valley Water Department is replacing manually read water meters with smart meters.  Smart meters use cellular data transmission of water usage to a central database. You can access the information that is uploaded using the "Water Hawk" website.  This website is  quite informative.  A user can how much water they have been using by hour for each day that the meter has been installed.  This is very helpful and useful to you in managing water usage. For example, you can easily determine how much water your drip system uses. Or, if there is a leak.

At last weeks town council meeting, two Oro Valley Residents asked that the town create an opt-out option from the towns smart water meter program. They believe that the transmission of this information can be a health hazard.  We checked with the American Cancer Society website and found interesting information about this. Generally, the amount of radiation omitted by the Smart Water meters is less than what you get with a cell phone.  Also, unlike your cell phone which is nex to your head, the Smart Water meter is located far from your home. The risk of your getting any radiation from his minimal.

That said, there is a privacy issue.  Do you want the town to be able to determine how much water you are using by the time of day and day of week?  We don't care.

Russell Ranch School For Boys Follow Up Coming
Several weeks back, Heather wrote about an Oro Valley Treasure: The Russell Ranch School for Boys. The school was run until 1950.  As a result of that posting, the Pat Marshall, the granddaughter of the founders contacted us. She wanted to know if we were interested in learning more. Pat has pictures and memoirs about the school that need a home. Heather plans to work with her to find a permanent home with the Oro Valley Historical Society. Heather will tell us more in a future posting.

orovalleynews.org... read what others say
Have you see the two tabs we've added on LOVE. They are next to the tab labelled "LOVE"  One tab is Oro Valley news. The other is news from Pima County. These tabs present the news of the traditional news sources so you can keep up with everything right her on love.

Long Realty: Oro Valley housing market improves in April
"In the Oro Valley area, April 2015 active inventory was 316, a 10% decrease from April 2014. There were 81 closings in April 2015, a 16% increase from April 2014. Year-to-date 2015 there were 245 closings, a 4% increase from year-to-date 2014. Months of Inventory was 3.9, down from 5.0 in April 2014. Median price of sold homes was $242,000 for the month of April 2015, down 5% from April 2014. The Oro Valley area had 102 new properties under contract in April 2015, up 21% from April 2014." (Source)