1e Bids for Water Meter ReplaceC YOF
CHANHASSEN
690 City Center Drive
PO Box 147
Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317
Phone
952.937.1900
General Fax
952.93,7.5739
Engineering Department Fax
952.937.9152
Building Depamnent Fax
952.934.2524
Web Site
www. ci. chanhassen, mn. .s
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Todd Gerhardt, Acting City Manager
FROM:
DATE:
Teresa J. Burgess, Public Works Director/City Engine,~;}
July 18, 2001
SUBJ:
Approve Specifications and Authorize Bids for Water Meter
Replacement Program - PW0240
It is recommended that the City Council approve the specifications and authorize
bids for replacement of water meters and installation of radio read equipment.
The number of units necessary has been estimated based on water billing
information supplied by the City's Finance Department.
The specification has been written to ensure compatibility with the existing
system, but to still allow competitive bidding by allowing for alternate meters and
radios meeting the City requirements if the compatibility problem is addressed.
Using existing City staff to do the meter replacement would require significant
overtime, therefore, the bid specification includes installation.
This contract will accomplish two major goals for the City:
1. Improve meter read accuracy.
2. Reduce meter read time.
As meters age, they run slower. Mineral build up in the meter further reduces the
accuracy of the meter. The older meters do not register all of the water passing
through them. This means that the City is supplying more water than is being
billed, normally without the property owner' s knowledge. A review of the City's
water production shows a significant loss of revenue. Increased meter accuracy
has two effects:
1. The property owner is billed for all of the water used.
,
The property owner is aware of how much water is being used. This
often results in conservation efforts by the property owner. (One
drawback of the meter change out is that many property owners are not
aware of the amount of water they are using. More accurate meter
reads will undoubtedly result in higher water bills for many properties
in the City.)
Todd Gerhardt
July 18,2001
Page 2
The City currently uses a combination of radio, touch and manual read (similar to
a car odometer). Touch and manual read have some major drawbacks that radio
reads will eliminate:
,
An employee must physically touch the reader pad with an electronic
reader or manually enter them on a keypad on the meter reader. Meter
billing in the city of Chanhassen is done on a quarterly basis.
One-third of the city is red each month. The monthly reading requires
approximately 1 FTE (full-time equivalent). Once the City has
converted fully to radio read, the entire City can be red in
approximately 4 hours. This reduction in staff time will allow the City
to continue to operate with a small utility crew as well as improve the
billing accuracy by insuring timely readings.
.
The reader pad is connected to the meter by a wire. Wiring the
connection is a time intensive process. In addition, the wire is often
damaged during construction or renovations done by the homeowner.
The wire is not necessary for the radio reader.
,
During cold weather, the generator in the exterior manual read display
could fail to register the signal from the meter in the house. It is
common when the City does a final meter read for a home sale to find
that a significant amount of water has been recorded by the house
meter, but not by the exterior display. The radio reader is inside the
home so it does not have the cold weather problem.
4. Property owners do not like the reader pad on the side of their home.
There is no need for the reader pad with radio readers.
A review of the revenue losses shows that the meter replacement will pay for
itself in 4-5 years. While meter replacement will not eliminate the water loss, it
will reduce the loss and increase the City's ability to pinpoint other losses.
Attachments: 1. BidPacket
c: Kelley Janes, Utility Superintendent
G:\ENG\Water Meters'staff report-7-23-01 .doc