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Century Making $1.3 Million Legislative Request To Replace Water Meters
February 7, 2021
Century seeking $1.3 million in funding from the Florida Legislature to replace water meters.
The funds would replace about 825 water meters with remotely readable radio-enabled units.
According to the town, water meters are failing and service connections are leaking. Replacing the meters and repairing leaky connections will improve water quality by eliminating lead connections and joints.
A funding request submitted by the town indicates existing meters were installed in 2006 and are now 15 years old. (The meters are actually 10 years old, purchased in 2010 and installed in 2011, according NorthEscambia.com. It expected the town will update their funding request.)
The system that allows the current meters to be read remotely has failed, and the vendor has gone out of business.
The town has also requested funding to rehabilitate water wells.
Century’s requests to the Legislature have received support from the local legislative delegation, Escambia County, and the Florida Rural Water Association.
Pictured: Century Town Hall. NorthEscmabia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
22 Responses to “Century Making $1.3 Million Legislative Request To Replace Water Meters”
I work for a utility company and we have a much larger area, we changed over several years back utilizing a plan over a few years. I do not understand why that large of amount of money is being requested. I think we need a new set of eyes to review this request. I love the town of Century but the more I read the more skeptical I become of the running of the town. We need to be hiring dependable knowledgeable workers, not just a friend or relative that needs a job. I know that the water company I work for, although larger than town of Century is small in comparison with ECUA, but we are a money making utility with high quality standards. Town of Century should be able to support itself, I still hold on to hoping to see quality improvements both in customer service and customer satisfaction.
THINKING AHEAD…..Let me guess. Ole Vernon’s buddy is going to be installing these meters. Jus like the gas meters that could have been installed by the town employee but Ole Vernon let his buddies company step in and make the money. I am all for the town doing better and trying to fix what is broke. But use the tools/employees/resources you have please before paying an outside company to do what you are already paying someone to do.
>>>Steven Barry is in his
3rd year as commissioner in District 5 which Century is a part of. Where is his input?????
The answer to that question is literally in the last line of the story. He is the commissioner that brought it to the entire board.
Check site myescambia.com for all information for District 5. Steven Barry is in his
3rd year as commissioner in District 5 which Century is a part of. Where is his input?????
Made out of cast iron? Can understand rust setting in & other environmental issues but well water quality should be first. Century did a scam business with previous vendor (need to investigate this). Math does not add up. Town is being ran just like the DemocRATS in Washington.
Recommend everyone who post a reply are the ones who need to be a part of cleaning up Century.
if they get em who is qualified to install and read them? will some of the meters not be read like in the past?
William Reynolds, thank you for the breakdown, it appears that everyone has been looking at the meter costs and not including the installation of the new meters, it’s one cost to buy the meter and another for the installation of those meters
The “leaders” of Century have been so crooked for so long, and nobody seems to hold them accountable! There is a blatantly untrue statement about the date of replacement of the meters…it is either a mistake, (which means somebody did not care enough to do the proper research), or it is an outright lie, (which means they are crooked and were found out). Either way, the town need to turn the city over to somebody with good sense, and quit with the “good ole boy” politics! …and WHY do the people of the TOC not do something about it…
>>The excess funds request could possibly be to replace water mains?
Nope. Basic breakdown is
Mobilization 15,000
396 long side water service complete (tap, tubing, meter box, fittings) $495,000
396 short side water service complete 297,000
791 5/8 radio read meter $330 each 261,300
34 other meters 1-6 inches, $400-$2000 each
AMR software $7200
AMR handheld unit $10,000
one year support $2,500
base station and laptop $21,000
A water meter for radio reading is approximately $150 per meter for a 5/8” meter. The price goes up depending on the size. It definitely does not equal the requested amount in the millions. A system with approximately 1,800 meters is about $350,000 for a complete changeout. The price also depends on if they want to be able to shut water off remotely from the push of a button on a computer, etc. Those do go up into the hundreds per meter. The excess funds request could possibly be to replace water mains? This is personal knowledge from working for a local water utility that recently completed a system wide meter change out.
How about asking the state to help repair Freedom Road bridge since there isn’t a plan to replace it.
Has anyone done the math on this one? These figures work out to about $1600 per meter. Manual meters cost about $100 per meter. How many years could you send somebody to read them for the difference of over a million dollars?
There is a very basic rule of government finance; If you don’t churn a bunch of money, you don’t have the opportunity to skim any off the top.
@ lol
You really are in need of public attention.
Really no narratives to talk about.
Just a lonely little person trying to validate themselves to society…
Lol
“I searched the internet, so now I am an expert in a field I have no understanding of” is peak 2021.
Lol
I searched a few places on the internet and the general consensus was residential water meters should last 15-20 years with 20 years being the most common answer. Failures at 10-11 years seems very premature.
($1.3 Million Legislative Request To Replace Water Meters)…let the tax payers for for it???
NO…the taxpayers did not cause this problem including lying about how old the current meters are.
No more than asking for more corruption handouts
Perhaps the pathetic losers can get a payday loan so they are responsible. Or pawn the titles to the towns trucks and cars.
Legislative Request ,,Bull X 1000
Imagine if the town management and corruption ran the United States of America…think about that…!!!!
@Rasheed Jackson
You can’t do that and make loans to people on the board.
You must be new to the town, it has always been, poor management of funds dereliction of duty. Just like the gas meters.
Give them a chance. They’re trying to make up for all that lost time.
Gulf Power seems to be the only service provider that has no big issues with their “Meters” in the Town of Century.
Gas Meters, did that mess ever get straightened out? Did not hear that it is now, and for the future, resolved.
Water Meters, C’mon Man….that’s not the State’s responsibility, that belongs to the water provider and the city. Don’t use our state taxes to fix the Town’s problems.
Hard to get things turned arounnd, y’all need to have a Forensic Audit of all issues there,
Good Luck….WOW
Century, always fabricating a crisis for themselves, so they can leverage the state for assistance. “Lead connectors”, is the town serious in this claim? This isn’t the 1940’s and by the way, the town’s meters were replaced not that long ago. So if there are lead connectors with meters, someone should be in prison.
I do not understand why the state should step in and repair/replace equipment belonging to the town. This should have been taken care of over the years with funds that had been set aside for repair and maintenance. Sounds like poor management of funds dereliction of duty.