The Bossier City Council introduced an ordinance to allocate $3 million for phase 1 of a water meter replacement project, a measure staff said will replace commercial meters and nonfunctioning residential meters and eliminate most estimated bills.

Amanda Nottingham, chief administrative officer for the city, said the contract quote covers about 3,370 meters — slightly more than the current estimate of nonfunctioning meters — and includes labor, programming, data import and customer notifications. Staff estimated the installation and cutover would take about six months once a contract is finalized.

A city utilities staff member described “STEL” meters as those that have not transmitted data for seven days; staff checked the list and found about 590 such meters the morning of the meeting. The staff member said roughly 75% of those will likely need replacement due to “generational die off,” damage or radio failure; the city has a small troubleshooting crew but limited capacity to service thousands of failing meters.

Councilman Brian Hammonds asked whether software glitches could explain missing reads; staff said the AMI and billing software systems are up to date and that some meters require hardware or radio replacement. Council members pressed staff on whether the work could be grant-funded; staff said they had examined federal water-sector funding opportunities but none applied to this purchase at present.

The ordinance was moved by Councilwoman Deborah Ross and seconded by Councilman Maggio. The item was introduced at first reading; council took no final appropriation vote at that moment (the $3 million allocation was introduced for consideration).