01-12-2004 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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COIlM/^tl MFFTING JAN 1 2 2004REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION CITY OF ORO.-VO DATE: January 12,2004 ITEM NO. Department Approval: Name Gregory A. Guppa Titk Director of Public Services Administrator Reviewed: Agenda Section: Public Services Director ’s Report Item Description: Purchase Radio Read Water Meters and Amend 2004 Fee Schedule- Resolution Introduction Radio Read Water Meters The City is cunently using water meters with an outside remote reader on the building. These meters require manual reading by public works personnel every quarter. There are appro.ximately 1,000 water meters in the City which requires about 200 man hours for meter reading and data input each quarter. The remote readers, on the outside of the buildings, are problematic and require additional stalTtime to repair. Also, if the reader is not working properly, it can be difficult to arrange a time to get into the house to read the meter. Homeowners are also not happy about having the readers on the outside of the house, and the installation of remote readers can be difficult for houses with brick or stucco facing. We are recommending beginning a program to upgrade to radio read water meters. Many cities are already using this technology which includes a transmitter on the water meter and allow for reading the meter from outside the house using a hand held receiver. This eliminates the need for an outside remote reader, and also the need to manually enter meter readings into the billing software, fhe meter reading data can be downloaded from the hand held reader directly into the billing software. The first step in this program will be to require radio read water meters on all new construction and for the replacement of malfunctioning existing water meters or remotes with a new radio read meter. This is an opportune time to begin this program as there will be 160 new housing units in StoneBay with several buildings currently under construction. Installing new meters and remote readers now and then coming back in the near future to install radio read meters is not very practical. The program costs for new construction meters will be funded by the sale of water meters. The City currently purchases water meters in bulk and then sells them to the plumbers who install the meter. The cost for the purchase of a radio read meters is about 50% more than a standard meter and remote. The cost for a standard 5/8” meter and remote is $ 130 and the cost for a radio read meter will be $210. This additional cost to purchase the radio read meter is less than the cost for the plumber to install the remote reader on the outside of the house which should result in a net cost savings for the property ow ner. 1