07-27-2005 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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much higher than they had for the previous two or three quarters because the remote was slow. That leads to disgruntled residents calling city hall wanting answers. ® Maintenance: Once the system is fully installed throughout the city, a program can be set up to replace meters as the battery life wears out. Replacements will be a five to ten minute process involving one employee. There is a slight chance of a factory defective meter needing to be replaced before 15 years, but it would only be a five to ten minute process to replace it and would be covered under warranty. Staff fixes approximately twelve meters per quarter due to stopped or slowed remotes. These fixes can be very difficult if a new wire needs to be run in a basement that has been finished since the meter was installed originally. With the radio -read system there is virtually no maintenance, only scheduled replacement. ® Billing: As stated earlier, Jessica must manually enter all readings provided to her from public works and Serco. This is a very time- consuming task that would be eliminated with radio -read meters. All readings are stored in the handheld reading device and then downloaded onto the computer at city hall. The data can then be loaded into our billing software and also stored in a database for reading comparisons and history. The billing process would be greatly simplified and the amount of time greatly reduced. All of those factors weigh heavily on the decision process. However, the radio -read system is a more expensive product than our current system. The startup cost is $10,000. That would provide us with the handheld reading device, a cradle for charging it, the route management software, on -site training and support, and 20 meters to get us started. I have also included the price list for meters that Hydro Metering has quoted me for the years 2005 -2008. I was able to negotiate the price down significantly from where they started and was also able to lock the city in at only 3% increases for 2007 and 2008. I have also included our current meter price list. This list includes the cost of accessory parts and labor necessary for a meter install. A lcey item in the current price list is $15 for the remote wire and seal. That cost will be eliminated, as there will no longer be any need for wire or a seal. Also, the labor charge could be reduced due to the smaller amount of time needed to install the radio -read meters. A quick comparison shows that, before taxes and labor, our current, standard residential meters cost $132.45. With the radio -read system, a standard residential meter would cost $156.50. That breaks down as $149 for the meter and $7.50 for the tailpieces. So there is a difference of $24.05 on just the meters alone. When taking labor into account one could assume that the labor charge could be reduced by $10. More research will be done in that area. This would bring the prices even closer together. However, I believe that the radio -read system will be the better value in the long run due to the greatly reduced amount of time spent on installing, replacing, and billing. A Phased In Approach: The main concern has been getting a payback on the meters that are 0 -15 years old that we have in our system. Staff would recommend that we phase in the new system over time to allow us to get full value out of those meters in the 0 -15 year range. Our plan would be to begin using radio -read technology on all new installations and any necessary replacements. We would also start a program this winter of changing out all commercial and residential meters over twenty years old. Those meters have most likely slowed down and are no longer accurate. We anticipate seeing much higher readings in those 3