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Council reviews water leak-detection bids, schedules award after engineer recommendation and public water-audit discussion
Summary
After an engineer recommended a specific bidder for water leak detection, the Stevensville council discussed utility data and nonrevenue water and agreed to return to award the contract at a July meeting; the project is grant-funded and intended to identify distribution losses.
The Stevensville Town Council discussed bids for water leak-detection services and the town’s nonrevenue-water levels, with engineers recommending a particular vendor but the council scheduling a formal award for a July meeting.
Eli, an engineer with HDR, told the council that three bids arrived for leak-detection services and that, after comparing like-for-like costs and field-time estimates, "Wire XYZ looks like the most qualified bidder." Wire XYZ submitted a fixed-price bid of $9,500, Eli said, but councilors and staff agreed to have the award come back on July 8 for review before final acceptance.
Council members and residents debated the town’s water-production and metering statistics. A public commenter who reviewed utility reports said the April production figure was about 18,214, and referenced earlier HDR tables showing billed volumes versus produced volumes and a growing percentage of nonrevenue water. Mary Schauff, a Creekside resident, urged a formal water audit to distinguish leakage from metering inaccuracies and other unbilled uses.
Eli and other speakers explained that percent-loss metrics can be affected by seasonal sales — for example, irrigation increases billed volume in summer and reduces percent loss — and that a leak-detection survey is a first step to quantify physical leaks versus metering or accounting issues.
Staff noted the project will be paid for with grant funds (ARP/other grant funding was referenced during discussion), and that the recommendation and bid details will be returned to the council for a formal contract award at the July 8 meeting. No final contract was executed at the June meeting.
The council did not take a final award vote; instead the council instructed staff and HDR to finalize reviews and return the bid recommendation for a formal award at the next scheduled meeting.
