BARRHEAD - In the future, users of the Manola truck fill water facility will no longer have the ability to pay using coins.
On Nov. 16, County of Barrhead councillors unanimously awarded a $22,787 contract to Flowpoint Environment Systems for the purchase and installation of a new payment system.
The funds will come from their federal gas tax grant. In the 2021 budget, the council had set aside $19,800.
Infrastructure director Ken Hove said it did not make sense to install the old coin-operated type truck fill system when the facility is reconstructed.
Recently the building that houses the station was all but destroyed due to vandalism after thieves attempted to steal the coins from the water fill station's payment box.
Damage to the building was too extensive to repair, so instead, the county demolished the remnants and will use the insurance proceeds to construct a new building.
Although this was the most damage caused by thieves, Hove said the facility was often a target for a relatively minor amount of money.
He estimated that at the time of the last theft attempt, had they been successful, the culprits would have only gotten $20, at most.
"It happens two or three times a year. Most of the time they just try to get into the box, but this time they smashed the whole building to get the small number of coins," Hove said.
He added the current "Twoonie" payment system has become obsolete, with replacement parts becoming harder to find, especially for the coin reading system.
Although the municipality has been exploring the different systems municipalities use, Hove said there were not a lot of options given the specialized nature of the service.
He added that Flowpoint Environment Systems, based in Morinville, is the only vendor that provided the county with a complete pricing package.
Hove explained the Flowpoint system allows the municipality to add, delete and control accounts remotely.
"It will also directly transfer all monthly account usage information directly into our Diamond financial software package, reducing the risk of error," he said, adding this feature is an additional $5,000.
However, county manager Debbie Oyarzun noted the latter would be part of council's 2022 budget deliberations.
Hove said he recommends the move away from the coin-operated system.
"If there is no money on site, the motivation to vandalize the building and equipment should be eliminated," he said. "And the ability to set up new accounts remotely will improve our customer service as it would eliminate the need to manually input the information. It would also give the county the ability to immediately suspend accounts to ensure users are not able to continue to increase the amount of water they take without paying."
Reeve Doug Drozd said despite the advantages, councillors should expect to “pushback” about the move.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
