SUBJECT: CONSENT AGENDA
Title
A Resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Erie Authorizing A Payment in the Amount of $681,700 for the Purchase of Water Meters from National Meter and Automation
Body
DEPARTMENT: Public Works
PRESENTER: Todd Fessenden, Director of Public Works
FISCAL INFORMATION:
Cost as Recommended: $378,900, $302,800
Balance Available: $378,900, $302,800
Budget Line Item Number: 500-70-110-603000-100001, 500-70-110-603000-100002
New Appropriation Required: No
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Approve Resolution authorizing payments and authorizing staff to expend said funds.
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
The 2020 Capital Budget includes funds for purchase of new and replacement water meters. At the January 26, 2016 Board of Trustees meeting, the Board directed staff to upgrade all water meters to the new Beacon smart meter system. This new technology allows the Town's water users to monitor their usage during the month. The new system also automatically transmits data to the Town's utility billing system, and as part of this project the Town completed upgrades to the utility billing system to receive and automatically process the usage information each month. Because there are over 9,000 meters on the Town's utility system, upgrading to the smart meters is taking place gradually over 10 years. At this point, the transition is ahead of schedule with 5,869 smart meters installed and 4,216 more to go.
Staff is planning replacing 763 of the old meters with new smart meters in 2020. Smart meters have also been installed in all new construction in the past four years and we are budgeting for 465 meters in new construction for 2020. Thus, we are anticipating installing a total of 1,228 new smart meters in 2020.
Benefits of the smart meters include:
* Allows customers Online and Smart Phone access to water consumption information to improve their understanding of water usage patterns and billing...
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