During his work as Kent city water-meter reader, Mark Maughan crosses the paths of pit bulls, Labradors and Doberman pinchers.<\/p>\n
But only one dog has ever bitten him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst one, and it bit me twice, was a Chihuahua,\u201d Maughan said Tuesday, sitting in at the Centennial Building in downtown Kent. \u201cIt bit me in the shoe and again in the back of my shoe on the way out. I think it had little-dog syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usually, dog biscuits do the trick for Maughan while he walks the streets of Kent to read residential water meters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know the truck and you,\u201d said Maughan, in his fourth year as a meter reader. \u201cThey bark at you, but it\u2019s not an angry bark. It\u2019s a \u2018where\u2019s my biscuit\u2019 bark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maughan is one of three full-time and one part-time meter readers for the city financial services department that bills customers. They read more than 8,000 meters on the east side of the city, 7,000 on the west side and 1,000 commercial meters.<\/p>\n
Even though Maughan runs into plenty of dogs, he enjoys the opportunity to work outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the exercise,\u201d he noted. \u201cAnd you go out by yourself, so you have a lot of time to think and ponder. It\u2019s kind of relaxing. This morning, it was cool, sunny and quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 20 years as a private landscaper, Maughan, 47, decided about four years ago to look for a job with better benefits and a retirement package. He started with the city as a maintenance worker at the Riverbend Golf Course. After a few months at the golf course, he started as a part-time meter reader. He combined the meter-reader job with part-time work in the city\u2019s mailroom for about a year before he became a full-time meter reader in 2005.<\/p>\n
Maughan uses a hand-held device to punch in numbers as he reads a meter. If the meter reads too high, too low or stays the same, he hits a certain key to pinpoint that meter for a follow-up check. After an audit of the meters back in the office, Maughan will return to any that might need to be replaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very thorough,\u201d said Lezlie Ellis, the lead meter reader and Maughan\u2019s supervisor. \u201cHe\u2019s very dedicated. We\u2019re lucky to have him on staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to reading meters, Maughan also cleans dirt out of the meter boxes or trims shrubs that might block the box.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, moles get in there,\u201d Maughan said.<\/p>\n
Because the city truck Maughan drives says \u201cCustomer Service\u201d on the side, he will get requests from residents for other services. He\u2019s even used jumper cables to start vehicles.<\/p>\n
Outside of work, Maughan does private landscaping jobs on the weekends. He lives in Auburn with his wife, Caroline. They have been married for 20 years and have two children, Katie, 19, and Kelly, 17. Katie played soccer at Auburn High and Kelly plays football and wrestles at Auburn, where he will be a junior in the fall. Kelly placed sixth at 119 pounds at the Class 3A state high school wrestling tournament in February at the Tacoma Dome.<\/p>\n
Maughan grew up in Auburn and graduated in 1980 from Auburn High, where he wrestled and played football. He coached junior wrestling for seven years. He spends Friday nights in the fall with his wife at Auburn football games selling concessions to help raise money for the high-school wrestling team. Those funds helped pay for a wrestling trip to Reno last year.<\/p>\n
Although Maughan shaved his moustache a few weeks ago, people have told him he looks like actor Charles Bronson.<\/p>\n
\u201cA young Charles Bronson,\u201d Maughan said.<\/p>\n
Ellis agreed that Maughan resembles Bronson. Ellis also knew about the Chihuahua story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had shut off the meter at the same home and gave the Chihuahua a biscuit and it went away,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cHe must not have had a biscuit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During his work as Kent city water-meter reader, Mark Maughan crosses the paths of pit bulls, Labradors and Doberman pinchers.
\nBut only one dog has ever bitten him.
\n\u201cThe worst one, and it bit me twice, was a Chihuahua,\u201d Maughan said Tuesday, sitting in at the Centennial Building in downtown Kent. \u201cIt bit me in the shoe and again in the back of my shoe on the way out. I think it had little-dog syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":6363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6362"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}