Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/12/2008

Home

Current water meter technology includes radio read, and fixed network radio systems. Radio Read The radio read system makes it possible to get meter readings while driving down the street in a vehicle following a designated route. This technology makes it possible to get fast accurate meter readings from as far as 1000 feet from the structure. The radio read system will alert the reader if the meter has been tampered with or if there was a backflow from the house to our system. It will also alert the meter reader if there is a constant slow leak like a dripping faucet or toilet. It also is inexpensive to get meter reading from a radio because the reader can get the reads just by driving down the street, thus eliminating the liability of a meter reader entering the backyards of thousands of homes. Fixed Network The fixed network radio system is also a radio system it utilizes a data collector unit placed every square mile throughout the city. The meters than send a reading twice a day to the data collector which relays the readings to a specified location. This system has all the advantages the radio system has but eliminates the drive by function and the oldest reading would be 12 hours old. Sample list of cities that have converted to a radio read system Coon Rapids Cannon Falls Edina Richfield Northfield Golden Valley Excelsior Maple grove Minnetonka Shorewood Brooklyn Park New Hope Sauk rapids Robinsdale White Bear Lake Sartell Eden Prairie Anoka One example of a successful radio read system is the City of Brooklyn Park. They have 21,000+ radio read water accounts. The Finance Director Cory Kemp reported that city staff can read 8-9,000 accounts per day. He was also the finance director for Robbinsdale and reported that city staff could read all 5,000 accounts in that city in four hours. I also contacted Mark Beer the Finance director at the City of Moundsview. Mark reported that the city has 3,250 water accounts of which 1,200 are radio reads. The city is converting another 1,000 this season. He reported that city staff can read the 1,200 radio read meter in about 45 minutes. Our current contract meter readers can read about 420-480 meters per day, and charge $ .45 per read or about $6663.60 a year to read our meters. This contracted expense could be eliminated if we utilized a radio read system.