PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council authorized an interfund loan of $1.623 million from the general fund reserve to the water operating fund to replace water meters and readers within the city.
The project is expected to cost $2.13 million, but the city already had budgeted $500,000 for meter replacements this year, Public Works Director Steve King said.
“We have identified the need to replace the water meters and (their) reading devices,” said Jodi Adams, the city’s director of finance and technology services. “We have a healthy general fund reserve and therefore thought it would be prudent to give ourselves a loan for this project.”
The general fund reserve will still be in a good place following the loan, Adams said.
The loan has a 4.75 percent interest rate, a higher rate than would be expected were the city to invest the money, Adams said.
“We’ll invest it into the city, purchase those water meters, then pay ourselves that interest rate back over the next four years,” she said.
The water operating fund would pay the general fund reserve at a rate of $455,000 a year for the next four years, King said.
Purchasing all of the meters at once will lead to cost savings, even with the interest, King said.
“The interest rate is better than inflation is right now and better than what we’re likely to see in increases to our general fund in the next few years, a notable hidden benefit to our general fund,” Mayor David Faber said. “It produces long-term savings. It’s a no-brainer.”
The meter replacement is likely to take place over the winter, King said.
“It’s good wintertime work,” he said. “I would anticipate three to four months. We probably won’t put heavy restrictions on time for the contractor, to encourage a better price.”
The project will replace about 4,800 meters, said Shelly Leavens, the city’s director of communications and marketing.
The city already was in the process of replacing the meters over a five-year span, King said. The city has replaced about 400 in the last few years, he added.
“That’s fine; that’s an appropriate way to do that,” he said. “Except when you have a lot on your plates, it takes your staff away from their normal duties.”
King said the city’s water distribution team has three employees spending approximately 10 days a month reading water meters. The agenda attachment said doing the work all at once should free up 240 employee hours per month.
King said he met with the team to discuss expediting the replacement process.
“I said, ‘What if we just borrowed the money, hired a contractor and got it all done at once?’” King said. “They said, ‘We’re in, that makes a lot of sense.’”
Reading the meters would take one to two days instead of 10, King said.
“The other thing is, our meters are just failing,” King said. “It’s causing a lot of havoc in the billing department. That’s forcing us to do a haphazard replacement where we’re scattered all over, instead of, ‘Just take a block and do it.’”
Most of the water meters currently in use in the city are more than 20 years old, according to the agenda attachment. When they wear out, they under-read, which costs the city revenue, King said.
“Most cities are replacing meters every 10 to 15 years,” King said.
The new meters are expected to last 15-20 years, King said. They don’t have the interior moving parts that have typically worn out on the existing meters, he added.
The new meters would be read by radio, King said.
“It’s really cool,” he said. “Basically, you just drive the road, and the meters will pop up on your map. The radio wakes the meters up, (the meter) tells the read and then goes back to sleep. That’s why the battery lasts so long.”
Meters that don’t read will show up as faulty on the map, King said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
