Belton City Council on Aug. 20 approved a contract with Utility Service Group Incorporated to replace the city’s water meters with an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system and later approved a maintenance contract for the network.

City staff described AMI as a move to digital, near‑real‑time meter reads that will let the city and customers detect leaks faster, improve billing accuracy and provide a customer portal showing usage history. The project contract for hardware and installation was presented at $8,250,672.40; a separate maintenance contract for monitoring and on‑site service was authorized at a not‑to‑exceed $169,000 per year.

City Manager and staff emphasized the contract will not be executed until council approves a budget amendment: the city expects to fund the work from existing capital balances. The finance director discussed preliminary funding allocations: "I've got 2,000,000 coming out of capital improvement sales tax, 3 out of wastewater, and 2.25 out of the water fund," staff said. Officials said the precise funding plan will be included in a budget amendment to be considered at a future meeting.

Staff described the schedule: a survey and equipment ordering period followed by installation. The system is expected to take about 15 months from start to finish; city staff said portions of the system will go live roughly six months after work begins, at which point the maintenance contract’s services will commence. Staff also said they will run the new AMI system alongside the existing meters while installation proceeds.

Utilities staff showed sample endpoint hardware and explained features: the new meters are non‑mechanical, designed for 15–20 years of service, and endpoints include a remotely operated sealed shutoff. Staff said the vendor will monitor the network and generate alerts for abnormal consumption patterns; the city will use those alerts to contact customers about possible leaks.

Council members questioned budget impacts and operational changes, including after‑hours turn‑on procedures. Staff said the finance office will take primary responsibility for remote shutoffs and turn‑ons and that a policy will be needed to handle after‑hours requests safely so customers are present when water is restored. Staff also outlined expected cash‑balance impacts, saying estimated ending cash balances would decline but remain above internal minimums if the council approved funding from the described sources.

Outcome: the council approved the AMI implementation contract and the annual maintenance contract. Staff will bring a budget amendment to a future meeting before the city signs the implementation contract and before work begins.