The Village of Boyle will spend more than $241,608 to replace all water meters and some gas meters within the village.
At its regular meeting last Wednesday, village council decided it would use money from the Federal Gas Tax Fund to cover the majority of the cost. $30,000 of utility reserves will cover the rest of the cost.
Public works superintendent Alex Neumann explained the change would benefit the village by cutting down on the man hours needed to read meters. The existing meters have to be read one at a time, and village staff travel from residence to residence.
“I don't have the manpower,” said Neumann. “I lose all my public works guys plus one of the arena guys when meters are read.”
The village will hire Metercor to replace the meters.
“They are willing to put out all the notices, and they are willing to change the meters out and bring us into the 21st century with Itron meters,” Neumann said.
The Itron system is used by surrounding municipalities. Within a certain range, Itron meters can all be read from one location.
“If there is a meter that is acting out and not reading properly, it is going to alert us and show that there is something wrong,” Neumann stated. “We won't have to wait for it to go through the billing system.”
The system will also upload to the village’s computer system for easy, efficient billing.
“Getting into residences is always tricky,” village chief administrative officer Charlie Ashbey said. “There are 10 per cent that are always really hard to get access to. The beauty of this bid is that we would have all the water meters and 100 new gas meters.”
Neumann reported it could take anywhere between four and six months to install the meters.
“(Metercor does) it all. They advertise, they hire doorknockers, they install. We have nothing to do with it,” he said.
Councillor Mike Antal stated that the cost recovery would not be apparent in the first few years, but would grow each year.
“I am thinking with the new system it will take three hours for one person (to read the meters),” he said. “Let's say three hours, compared to three days.”
