Shelton public works to adopt new asset-management platform, pursue AMI meters and emergency water resilience

Public works told Shelton council on Feb. 10 it plans technology and operational upgrades in 2026, including a move to Schneider for asset management, expanded GIS mapping and upgrades to water-meter reading.

Jay Harris, public works director, said staff want to replace the current platform with Schneider because field crews find the existing system difficult to use. "We're looking at, moving away from the Tyler platform and going to a different platform for our staff," Harris said, citing Schneider’s out-of-the-box field features and a shorter implementation timeline.

The department also described a transition from walk-by meter reads to a fixed-base AMI collection antenna that would allow near-real-time meter data, easier rereads and faster identification of leaks; staff said the upgrade will reduce the labor required to read meters.

Emergency management and resilience were prominent topics: staff said wildfire is their top risk and described steps taken to harden water facilities (vegetation removal, metal roofs) and improve fuel logistics for generators. Public works discussed exploring a mobile water-processing plant that could be deployed to provide potable water in a prolonged outage.

Harris outlined asset-replacement planning through an equipment maintenance and rental (EM&R) fund and stressed the need to maintain pavement condition indices and stormwater mapping in GIS so maintenance can be proactive rather than reactive.

Council asked questions about sea-level impacts and water sourcing; staff said local groundwater and rain, not snowpack, supply the system.

Staff asked council for time to continue questions and added 10 minutes to the meeting to finish the presentation. Public works will return with implementation timelines and cost estimates for the Schneider migration, AMI meters and identified resilience projects.