Grumpy, are you staying warm?

[Lee]

For some reason our town water department gets real pissy if you shut off the shut off in the yard.
They want you to call and have you do it.

I believe you meant "... have them do it ..."

I can understand why.

Can't really trust all homeowners to be careful around what is the municipality's equipment (valve and gauge). My gauge has a brass lid over the glass (?) face of the gauge and a dropped wrench onto the open gauge would bust the glass (and possibly the gauge as well). Then the water would flow unmeasured until the next time the guy comes to read the gauge, after which the municipality would have to repair the gauge as the homeowner would likely deny any knowledge of the break.

Thanks, I went back and edited. Debbie had the computer working on taxes and I'm all thumbs when using a phone or tablet.
Our shut off would be hard to damage, it's a heavy duty brass shut off valve like farmers use on a livestock water line. It's not in a well like in the south. It's buried 4 foot down with a pipe up to the surface. You slip a 6 foot tool down the pipe to turn the valve.
Water gauges/meters are in the house so they don't freeze and they read them electronically. Years ago they came into the house to read the meter.