HOROSCOPE

Earle eyes new water meters

Upgrade could generate thousands in revenue

news@theeveningtimes.com

Earle may have new water lines, but now the city’s water meters are failing and is costing the city thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Water Department Manager Danny Clark asked the city council to consider buying new meters for the city in the coming year.

“We need to sit down and really have a good conversation about this as soon as possible,” Clark said. “I honestly believe this is one of the best things we can do for the city.”

Earle replaced about 600 water lines in 2014 which covered about 95 percent of the city. The project was funded by a $1.7 million grant from Arkansas Rural Development Commission.

Clark said right now the city is losing about 50 percent of its water because its water meters are failing and not registering that usage.

“We’ve got housing projects being charged the basic rate because the metering system is just no good,” Clark said.

Clark said he opted not to replace the meters at the time because he wanted to put in all new water lines first.

“I didn’t replace the meters because I would have had to give up doing all of the lines,” Clark said. “I wanted to get all of the lines in the ground first.”

Replacing the water meters will cost the city about $200,000, according to Clark. Earle has about 667 water accounts.

Blake Culbreath of Henard Utility Products, Inc. in Searcy, which sells Badger water meters and was asked by Clark to speak to the city council, said water meters are the city’s cash register in the ground for the water department.

“That’s how the department produces income,” Culbreath said. “If there is 50 percent water loss now, then you really have bad water meters. That’s the only place that could be coming from since you have all new water lines.

So customers are using water that they are not being charged for. It’s costing the city money.”

Culbreath said even if new water meters improved water loss by 25 percent, the city would see revenues increase by about $40,000 a year.

“And that’s without raising water rates,” Culbreath said.

Culbreath recently did a $1.5 million project in Marion.

Marion ordered 5,000 new meters from Badger to replace its aging radio-read meters, which were about 13 years old and never performed up to expectations.

The Badger meters are equipped with a transmitter which sends data to the water department about a customer’s usage.

The meters also help troubleshoot for leaks, and customers can also access their account on-line or by their mobile devices.

“I’m not here looking for an order,” Culbreath said.

“I don’t want to shoot out a bunch of figures because I just don’t know. I’m just getting you started here.

But this is a good time to do this. Marion has 500 leak alerts. That’s how sophisticated the system is.”

Andrew Rike, an engineer with Harbor Environmental and Safety in Little Rock, said Earle could finance the project through a low interest loan from Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

The process will take about four to six months, he said.

“It’s a slow process when you get a government agency involved,” Rike said. “But it would be one of the quicker projects you could do.”

Rike, who has worked with Henard on similar size projects, said most cities replace their water meters every 10 to 15 years.

“The water meter are the life blood of the water department,” Rike said. “And the water department needs to make money in order to make improvements and for maintenance. If you haven’t replaced your meters in a while, they are going to continue to fail and you will continue to have less income coming in.”

And from experience, the Rike said the Badger meter is one of the best on the market.

“If you do decide to replace your meters, I do encourage you to use a similar meter to what Blake was talking about,” Rike said. “The other cities and water associations who have used it have found that it’s a very accurate meter.”

Councilman Robert Malone said while he agrees he would like to see new water meters installed, the city has a lot of other pressing issues to deal with and doesn’t have the money right now.

“It sounds real good,” Malone said. “I know it is important. But we have a lot to take care of. We need to upgrade some things.

But we’re going to have to take our time. We have some real problems here and we don’t have the resources to have all these fancy things.”

Councilman Jesse Selvy said the city would likely have to raise water rates and residents don’t have an extra two or three dollars a month to pay for it.

“I remember when we had to raise the water bill five dollars,” Selvy said. “We caught all kinds of flak.

There was a major fight in this town.”

Clark said waiting to replace the meters isn’t going to make it any cheaper, and added that water is a critical resource.

“If it comes to paying an extra three dollars to have water, I guarantee they will answer they need the water,” Clark said. “If your water isn’t right, your town isn’t right.”

Mayor Carolyn Jones agreed.

“I think it is a wonderful idea,” Jones said. “Pure drinking water, to me, is worth taking a chance. You can’t take chances on your water.”

Councilman Kenneth Cross said they aren’t certain whether they will have to raise water rates if they decide to go ahead and buy new meters.

He also agrees that replacing the meters would be good for the city.

“We are losing 50 percent of our water that we aren’t getting paid for,” Cross said. “We don’t want to be losing money.”

Clark said the city will also at some point need to drill a new well. The city’s wells date back to 1958 and 1978 — well beyond their life span.

“We’re not going to jump into this next week,” Clark said. “But we are on borrowed time. We’ve got to get the revenue to do these things. This is a chance for us now to get some more information. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was important.”

Jones thanked Clark for the information and said it is a topic the council will look at in the coming months.

“Let’s talk about it a little more,” Jones said. “This is something we don’t need to give him an answer on right now.”

By Mark Randall