(9/15) Burgess Heath Barnes told the Town Council that with the exception of a handful of homes, all the homes and businesses in the Town have had their water meter reading system successfully upgraded to a new state of the art system.
The upgrade effort, which began in August, went quite smoothly, Barnes said. "Residents have all been very responsive to setting up appointments to have their meter readers and its associated transmitter changed out," Barnes said.
The town's old water reading system was from 2006, "and it really had become obsolete," Barnes said. While the meters still work, the meter reader-transmitting device, which sits atop the meter itself, had become completely outdated, and many were beginning to fail outright.
The old process required the town staff to download software into a ‘remote reader’ and then drive around town. At each home, the ‘remote reader’ would send a signal to the home’s water meter transmitter. The transmitter then would respond to the signal with the number of gallons of water used since it was last interrogated. Once all the meters were read, town staff would then have to upload all the readings into another system, which was then used to process the billing for the water. All in all, it was a time-consuming process.
To make matters worse, the software used by the old system was no longer supported, and the company that created the system had gone out of business, so the town had no option but to replace the old meter readers and their transmitters with a updated system.
If the town had not taken action to replace the old system, town staff was faced with a very real probability that they would soon have to begin to physically read all 450+ meters in town, which would not only adversely impact the ability to incorporate the readings into the town software for water billing, but greatly inconvenience residents who would have been required to allow town staff to enter their homes to read the meters.
The new system not only alleviates the concern over the ability to read meters in a timely fashion but also saves the town money, Barnes explained.
The new meter reader transmitters utilize cell phone technology to send and receive information via a T-Mobile transmitter on the town water tower. Once a quarter, town staff will send a single to the transmitter on the water tank, which will initiate a town wide transmission to all the water meters in the town. Upon receipt of the signal, the transmitters on the top of the water meters will respond with the number of gallons of water used since they were last interrogated.
The whole ‘interrogate and respond’ process will take less then a minute. Upon receipt, all the information will be automatically downloaded into a billing software system that will automatically create resident’s water bills, resulting in a significant saving in town staff time and expense.
While paper bills will still be sent out, the new system offers residents the opportunity to pay their bills on-line. The new system also includes a feature that will notify the town office of any nefarious system tampering.
While the new water meter reading system does not offer the option for residents to monitor their water usage remotely, like Walkersville’s system does, the state of the art software offers the town the option to explore such tools said Barnes. We want to make this a user-friendly process. "The new system is a win-win for everyone and I want to personally thank everyone for their cooperation."
The cost of the new water meter reading systems was paid from funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act. The $152,000 price tag also includes purchasing additional meters for installation in future homes, or to replace failed meters, as well as covering the cost of purchasing a larger meter for the elementary school.
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