Is hope on the horizon for a more accurate and timely distribution of the city’s water bills?
That is the expectation. On Monday night, the Indianola Board of Aldermen opened bids for materials and the purchase and installation of new radio-read water meters for the entire city and voted to accept the recommendation of City Engineer Ron Cassada.
Cassada told the city fathers that only one bid was received for the meter reading system and equipment and that was for $898,743 from Southern Pipe & Supply in Greenville.
The lowest bid for the installation, $238,721, came in from Hemphill Construction Company of Florence. Cassada said it was his recommendation to accept those two bids contingent on the accuracy of the math and establishment of the funding.
A bid of $574,541 was also received from Red Oak Construction of Wesson, RTS Water Systems of Grandberry, Texas bid $366,692.54 and Vandguard Utility Services, Inc of Owensboro, Kentucky bid $266,506.37.
At the board’s May 2018 meeting, Cassada addressed the officials and presented a projected cost estimate of $1,229,552.40 to replace the 3,800 plus meters citywide. He said then that of the options available, the drive-by system is the city’s best choice.
One person with a laptop and antenna in his truck can collect the data from all of the meters in a matter of hours without having to drive each street. The computer setup would be able to draw a signal from several streets over. He said it eliminates human error and takes out the guest work.
Cassada said the system sends an alert if a meter has not been read and can retain six to nine months worth of data so they can actually tell the time that a leak occurred and how long it lasted. “It gives precise data,” Cassada added.
Cassada also projected that there would not be a water rate increase and Mayor Steve Rosenthal said the new meters would enhance customer service and the customers could count on their water bills being correct, thereby eliminating the need for re-reads.
Rosenthal also avowed that no jobs would be lost as a result of installing the drive by system and it would actually free up the water employees to assist in the public works department.
Cassada assured then that the meters were 20-year meters and would not require anything above what was already being done with the existing units.
Rosenthal said a portion of the nearly $2 million that has accumulated in the water and sewage account would pay for the system, since it cannot be used for anything else including streets, and they would finance the rest over a 10-year period. He said revenue from the water service would pay the note.
In other business,
The aldermen also voted to make Garner Engineering the engineer of record for the radio-read water meter project.
After emerging from their closed executive session,
The city lawmakers voted 3 to 1 to increase the pay of firefighter Sandy Evans to $12 per hour.
They voted unanimously to provide six weeks of back pay to police officer Darrell Fischer.
And voted 3 to 1 to suspend Elizabeth Elmore, animal shelter director, for 10 days without pay and place her on a 90-day probationary status.
Alderman Gary Fratesi said he voted no because he did not attend the executive session and was not aware of what took place during the discussion. An abstention would have automatically been counted as a yes vote.
Alderman Darrell Simpson was absent.
