Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Fort Smith water crews say aging equipment and meters are driving leaks, ask board to fund replacements
Summary
Waterline maintenance leaders told the board their crews are hampered by aging dump trucks, backhoes and failing AMR encoders; staff asked that the board place funding for equipment for two full leak-repair crews on an upcoming agenda and described ongoing problems with automated meters and billing.
Water utilities staff told the Fort Smith Board of Directors their waterline-maintenance program is strained by worn equipment, staffing vacancies and failing automated meters that together are increasing response times and creating billing errors.
Lance McEvoy, director of water utilities, said a fully equipped leak-repair crew needs a one-ton service vehicle, a five-ton dump truck, a backhoe and a heavy-duty trailer — a package that yielded initial vendor quotes of roughly $361,116 per crew. "Lead times are anywhere from we could get it within a couple of weeks to, about 6 months," McEvoy said, citing supply and tariff volatility.
Kenny Hall, deputy director for waterline maintenance, said the utility currently runs five full-time leak crews of four people each, and that equipment failures are frequent. "Backhoes specifically… we've had them down 4 times this year... One of the service trucks has been down 3 times this year," Hall said, explaining that broken equipment can take crews out of…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
