Carl Bowman with Spire Energy (center, with black hat) speaks with Blue Valley neighbors during their monthly meeting.

Dorri Partain

Managing Editor

An October gas meter incident brought Blue Valley neighbors together on Thursday, Nov. 20 to discuss a dangerous scenario with a representative from Spire Energy. 

During their regular neighborhood association meeting at Guadalupe Center Elementary (5123 E. Truman Rd.), members learned details from the affected homeowner and nearby neighbor,  who alerted the homeowner after encountering a heavy concentration of natural gas centered at that property. 

The Northeast News is withholding the names and addresses of these individuals for their protection.

Spire technicians arrived at the address and discovered the gas meter had been tampered with —- a stick had been inserted into the meter’s regulator — and determined this could only be caused by an individual as intentional vandalism.

Due to the nature of the incident and safety of the homeowner, Kansas City police were called to the scene.  Due to call volume, no officers arrived and the homeowner and neighbor filed a report at the East Patrol Division office a week later. With no suspects, physical or recorded evidence, the police department has suspended this case pending further leads.

Carl Bowman, construction supervisor with Spire Energy,  addressed neighbor’s concerns about this type of incident, stating that he’s never encountered a similar situation previously.

“It’s not common knowledge, shared, about how a (meter) regulator would work,” said Bowman.

“For someone to stick a stick in it, jam it wide open, I don’t know how that could happen.”

The neighbor who alerted the homeowner stated that the gas level was 29 parts per million in the home’s basement when Spire arrived for the emergency shut-off.

Neither the homeowner or surrounding neighbors have any suspects in mind but spoke about gas pipe vandalism that occurred on their block, in which pipes were cut from a vacant home’s crawl space but still had gas service, causing a similar situation with natural gas flowing through the home prior to an emergency shut-off call.

The homeowner asked Bowman what could be done to protect his neighbors since they have the same type meters outside their homes.

“What’s protecting them is the system itself,” replied Bowman. The regulator should be there for protecting against the gas pressure. If somebody vandalized it, if they have the knowledge about it, how to do it, I can’t say there’s a lot of protection that we put in place to protect against vandalism. Vandalism is what it is- vandalism.” 

Spire Energy- a natural gas service provider that operates across Missouri – began switching in 2024 to ultrasonic gas meters that are enclosed and have the technology to automatically shut off if gas pressure rises.

Spire media representative John Mink, during a phone interview, stated that meters older than ten years are being replaced. While these ultrasonic meters have the technology to be shut off remotely, Spire does not have the network capability to utilize this option in emergencies.

Bowman stated this new meter could be installed once the case filed with the police department was completely closed.

Since this gas meter incident, the homeowner has been without gas service. Spire technicians replaced the gas adjustment on his current meter, the homeowner said, but pipes inside the house were damaged to the point that any gas entering the home would leak.

Natural gas is odorless but the distinctive smell of rotten eggs is added to alert homeowners of dangerous gas levels. If you suspect a gas leak, leave your home immediately and contact Spire at its emergency line at 1-800-582-1234 or call 911.