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Shenandoah staff outline $1.5M AMI meter upgrade and other water-sewer projects
Summary
Public works presented a list of water and sewer capital projects including a recommended $550,000 Vision Park 16-inch line replacement, $70,000 in hydrant repairs and a $1.5 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and meter-replacement project; staff described expected customer benefits and asked for council direction on funding.
City public-works staff on Aug. 13 presented a package of water and sewer capital needs that they said require action to improve reliability and billing accuracy.
Public Works (Joseph) recommended replacing a troublesome 16-inch water main that has broken repeatedly since installation; staff proposed either rerouting the line out of some backyards or replacing the PVC with ductile iron and estimated the full design-and-construction cost at about $550,000. Joseph said the breaks have occurred near the same section repeatedly and that moving the line out of private backyards would require easements.
Staff also requested roughly $70,000 to finish prioritized fire-hydrant repairs and listed a $50,000 estimate to replace a damaged wastewater outfall segment. The largest proposal was a $1.5 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program that would replace aging meters (many commercial meters and long-in-ground residential meters), provide near-real-time reads and leak alerts, and reduce field labor and re-read costs. Joseph noted modern AMI solutions use cell networks and provide customer dashboards, leak notifications and better operational data.
Why it matters: staff said the Vision Park line is young but has failed many times, creating pressure and reliability problems for nearby customers; AMI would modernize metering, give customers an app-based dashboard and enable leak detection that could reduce utility losses and customer disputes. Councilors asked about ROI, annual maintenance costs and integration with future billing/ERP systems; staff said more analysis and a fund-balance projection would be prepared for the next meeting.
Next steps: staff will supply detailed cost-breakouts and fund-balance projections and return with options for funding and phasing. Council did not approve funding during the workshop but kept the projects in the capital list for further consideration.
