In a 3 to 1 vote last Monday night, the Indianola city lawmakers decided to proceed with advertising for bids on the installation of new radio-read water meters. Alderman Sam Brock was the lone no vote, Alderman Darrell Simpson was not present.
Alderman Gary Fratesi made the motion to proceed with advertising for the bids, citing that the city had already ordered the survey once before, six years ago, but never followed through with asking for bids.
The city leaders decided at a previous meeting to allow Gardner Engineering to conduct a survey and outline the specs for the $1 million project, which will be funded by the city’s water revenue that cannot be used for anything else other than water and sewer enhancements.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal said, “We started this six years ago, we were one of the first ones to promote it, and it looks like we’re going to be the last ones to do it.” Rosenthal said several other towns and utility providers, including Leland and Hollandale and Entergy and Atmos, have already implemented the service.
Engineer Ron Cassada again outlined the benefits of the radio-read system and told the men that it was possible to have all of the meters read in one day and any errors would be identified immediately. “What happens is, while you’re reading them it will send you errors, if you’ve got reverse flow, or water leak, or meter not reading,” Cassada said.
He said installing and using the new technology would provide a reduction/elimination in human errors, plus a faster and more accurate reading, which should allow the bills to be mailed out in a timely manner.
Brock asked if the new system would affect the employment status of any of the current workers and was assured “no jobs will be lost.”
Cassada said, “Cities this size are usually unable to reduce their staff.” He said that is because those same guys that were reading and doing maintenance would be working on any work orders that are generated by the system.
Brock asked if this system would be similar to the one used in Greenville and was told that it was not. Rosenthal said, “This is a drive-by system, where they actually ride by each meter.” He said Greenville’s system sends all of the data back to city hall and noted some faults with those type systems.
Cassada added that the proposed system would be less expensive and would not be difficult to facilitate. “You’ll have a lot less growing-pain issues with this type system,” he said.
The city already has some radio-read meters installed, mainly in the Sunflower Estates subdivision and Rosenthal said they have not had any problems with those.
Alderman Marvin Elder asked about past data and comparisons and Cassada explained that what Elder was asking for was all a part of the information and surveys they paid Gardner Engineering to do over the past four months.
The proposed meters have a 20-year life expectancy according to Cassada. He plans to advertise for bids during the last two weeks of the month and following in accordance with the standardized process, he anticipates opening the bids by the second meeting in March.
In other business,
The lawmakers listened to information presented by Mayor Steve Rosenthal on establishing a land bank for the city, but after a nearly 15-minute discussion, they decided to table it after Elder raised some concerns and called for a motion.
Attorney Gary Austin said there was no need to proceed because there was insufficient data. Austin said, “Alderman Elder’s motion to table is in order and I think it is a good order because I think there is no amount of discussion y’all can do here tonight, because you don’t have the information. And I think Alderman Elder needs to get the information as well as the rest of y’all.”
