Hurricane water staff outline pipe replacements, hydrants and phased AMI meter rollout

City water department staff told Hurricane City Council and staff on Wednesday that several aging waterlines and booster-pump failures will be priorities in the coming budget year, and that the city plans a phased rollout of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

The department described a series of small, local waterline replacement projects, including a roughly 660-foot replacement on 2700 South and upgrades on 400 South/1400 West where the existing supply includes 2-inch lines without fire protection. Staff said they will add two fire hydrants in that area and run a 4-inch main to locations now served by undersized poly and galvanized lines.

"Corey's been negotiating with Interstate, and they've given us a really good price that while that's open, we can just put in another pipe in there," a water department staff member said, describing coordination with an irrigation contractor so crews can trench once and install both irrigation and culinary lines. The office also noted a longer stretch where a 1½-inch galvanized line will be replaced with a 6-inch main and a hydrant installed behind a recently built duplex.

Officials described trouble with booster pumps during the past year and said the department lost two Stratton booster pumps in a single week; one pump has been returned from repair and a second recently was fixed and is ready for pick-up. Staff said the failures underscored the cost and lead-time risk of single-point failures and argued for keeping spare pumps and motors or rapid repair contracts locally. "When you go down in the middle of summer and they tell you it's two months to get this going, then you've got a problem," the presenter said.

On meters and billing, staff proposed continuing a multi-year AMI rollout rather than completing all meters in one fiscal year. "We can get probably close to 85, 90 percent this year. We'll have to do a little bit next year to finish them out," the water presenter said. Staff discussed Aclara (spelled a‑c‑l‑a‑r‑a in materials) as one vendor used by nearby utilities and said the city will compare systems and annual service fees. The presentation listed AMI annual-service-fee items and said the department expects growth in irrigation customers to increase revenues by an estimated 6 percent next year.

Staff also described recent irrigation and storage investments: two new irrigation ponds of approximately 3,000,000 gallons each and a 2,000,000-gallon tank project that staff said had incurred roughly $198,000 in city spending for parts and connection work so far. Staff emphasized that some federal or external funding (NRCS) helped pay a portion of irrigation project costs.

The department asked the council to consider capital equipment prioritization, including a deferred truck purchase and replacement of a GPS rover (estimated around $8,000 before trade-in) and ongoing investment in valve locators and mobile field equipment.

The presentation included a personnel and operations note about a long-serving meter reader, Hans, who staff said has been critical to saving warranty money and revenue but whose conduct with the public has caused personnel managers to delay merit increases. Department managers said they will continue coaching and evaluate performance formally before adjusting wages.

Council members and staff did not take a recorded vote during the presentation; staff asked for direction and said they would return refined budget amounts later.