Century Considers $130K Water Meter Purchase To Improve Billing, Revenue

August 25, 2010

The Town of Century is considering the $130,799 purchase of 941 new automated water meters to eliminate billing problems and lost revenue.

“We were doing the best we could do,” Mayor Freddie McCall said of the town’s current automated water meters, “but what we ended up doing was throwing Band-Aids on a situation that required more.”

The current automated meters have been plagued by misreads, billing mishaps and continual customers complaints.

“We have been fighting this for years now,” McCall said Tuesday night. He said that the current system will correctly run only about one of every 10-15 billing profiles. A billing profile is essentially a long-term account history. “It’s a headache.”

“The problems with that product start snowballing and it becomes very inaccurate,” Dan Devane, regional sales manager for meter equipment Datamatic, Ltd., said at a special council workshop Tuesday night. Datamatic manufactured the current, problematic meters, which were installed about five years ago. They also manufacture the new “Mosaic Firefly” equipment the town may purchase.

In trading in the old system for the new, Datamatic will provide the town about $140,000 in discounts.

With the new Mosaic Firefly system, the town’s meter reader will never leave his vehicle. He will simply drive block to block as the meters automatically report their readings. For an estimated $30,000 in upgrades at a later date, the new system wold be capable of automatically reporting water meter readings from across the town without human intervention.

With the completely automated “mesh” system, each meter would communicate with neighboring meters, eventually relaying a report from each meter back to city hall. That method, Devane said, is much more cost effective that sending out a human meter reader. In addition, daily reports could pinpoint customers with leaks, backflows, usage on inactive accounts and fraud.

Datamatic also manufactured the current gas meter reading system for the Town of Century. McCall said there is no plan to replace that equipment at this point, but it would eventually be phased out for a newer system like that proposed for the water meters.

The new water meters would have a 10 year guarantee, including an internal battery. Each meter would store hourly information for 320 days. The new meters will also be lead-free, a standard required of new meters in Florida by 2012.

The $130,799 purchase, if approved by the council, would pay for itself in less than two years, according to estimates by Devane. He estimated the town would realize an additional $83,125 in additional billings due to increased meter efficiency and about $2,200 per year in labor savings.

Pictured top: Datamatic Regional Sales Manager Dan Devane describes a new water meter system Tuesday night as Century Mayor Freddie McCall and Council President Ann Brooks look on. Pictured below: This PowerPoint slide details the no cost items the Datamatic company promises to provide to the Town of Century with a water meter system upgrade. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.


Comments

6 Responses to “Century Considers $130K Water Meter Purchase To Improve Billing, Revenue”

  1. Century girl on August 27th, 2010 5:34 am

    I agree. the Sealed bid process is how this should be handled. It just concerns me of the expense of implimenting another system when the previous wasn’t accurate… What about the incorrect charges? What about the expense of purchasing a worthless system? And then buying another from the same company?
    Sealed bids…a must …this just doesn’t sound right.

  2. Ron on August 26th, 2010 6:52 pm

    What happened to the competitive bid process for major procurements such as this? Look at ECUA’s system which seems to be working very well. I don’t think they have datamatic and they might give you some pretty good reasons why not.

  3. Century girl on August 26th, 2010 5:29 am

    So what’s the plan for the “incorrectly” calculated bills, since the Mayor says only 1 in 10-15 are read correctly?? Hmmm. If I remember correctly the current system was to be read from the truck as well.

    In correct water readings, gas readings, etc… Maybe Century needs a real utility authority or some accountability somewhere. Our sensor in the water meter box was just laying in the box for who knows how long… But they still got readings hmmmm.???

    Maybe someone who would “get out of the truck” and READ the meter might be best.
    Two meter systems in less than 10 years… Ridiculous!

  4. Shaun on August 25th, 2010 7:26 am

    So you got one off the wall system from a no name company several years ago that has been giving you nothing but problems over that period and from what I have seen, this company hasn’t been helpful to you at all. And now your going to purchase supposedly better equipment from the same company? That is crazy. I would at least hope you call more than one customer of theirs before getting this system, or you are going to be in the same situation.

  5. Local Yocal on August 25th, 2010 7:06 am

    I already know there will be one Council-Member vote against them- any guesses??

  6. Concerned Century Citizen on August 25th, 2010 2:02 am

    I think it’s great. Cenury needs to step up tro the times. Lead meters and such are now updated for trhe safety of the ustomers. Mr. Devane cme and did a stepp step of the problem. I was glad to se tje actually town employees there that could answer some questions that would be befenficials to ourTown. Way to go becaUSE W

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