Turkey Creek Council hears about new water meters

Chad Robinson from S and J Meter in Alexandria addressed the Turkey Creek Village Council Thursday about installing ultrasonic water meters.
Robinson said the mechanical waters, which the village currently still uses, are obsolete.
“Our meters are ultrasonic,” Robinson said. “We don’t have any moving parts in them. Our failure rate is .01 percent. We read very low. We read to 15 thousandths of a gallon. We will read the water in your icemaker.”
Robinson went on to explain how the meters are read. “It’s a drive by system,” he said. “You will hook up an antenna to a cell phone or a tablet. You just drive around in the vehicle, and it reads the meters. You don’t have to get out the vehicle. There’s no worrying about snakes, bees, spiders, or dogs.”
He added, “It will make you more revenue. You’re going to read more water.”
It will also take one employee about the course of one day to read all the meters, according to Robinson.
The ultrasonic meters, according to Robinson, come with a 20-year warranty, which is the life of the meter.
“With our meters being ultrasonic and so exact,” Robinson stated, “our accuracy is actually guaranteed for the life of the meter. For 20 years, our accuracy will be between one-and-a-half percent, so it will be 98.5 or better for the life of the meter.”
Robinson also discussed the tamper resistance of the meters, which are equipped with alarms. He said customers will have to buy a new meter if it is tampered with because the meters are vacuum sealed and will no longer work.
The cost for each meter is $185.00. “They are a little more than a mechanical meter,” Robinson said, “but, over time, they make up the difference in price.”
With the cost of software and installation, the cost of the meter comes out to $240.00. There is also a yearly fee which includes software updates.
As Robinson explained, finance options are available for the cost of the meters. One option calls for the water bills to increase $4.00 a month.
No action was taken by the council regarding the water meters.
In other business, the council voted to adopt two separate resolutions to apply for Local Government Assistance Program (LGAP) and Community Water Enrichment Fund grants to fully blast, paint, and inspect the water tower.