Council weighs water-plant filter work, a line-mapping system and a billing vendor demo

Council members discussed a package of utility issues including water-plant maintenance, a proposed mapping system for water/sewer lines, and customer-billing problems with the town’s current vendor.

Staff and council said the sediment filters that clean the town’s water appear to be at or near the end of their useful life; replacement parts or a replacement system was described as likely in the $40,000–$50,000 range. Separately, staff noted there is a cleanup/disposal cost for the spent filter media (sand and charcoal); one council member said performing the cleanup in-house could save “several thousand dollars” compared with contractor disposal.

The council also discussed a vendor who would survey and digitally map water and sewer lines into software so future crews have an accessible record of line location and to support work-order integration. The base estimate discussed was “in the mid-forties” (described in the meeting as mid-$40,000s), with options that could raise the price depending on feature selection.

On billing, staff described ongoing issues with the current vendor Arista, including credit-card payments posting only once per month; Denise said Cassell (represented by Zach Day) offered an on-site demonstration to show real-time payment posting and a bundled services package. The council asked staff to schedule the on-site demo and to publish notice so interested citizens can attend if the event is informational.

Council did not authorize purchases at the meeting but asked staff to pursue vendor demonstrations, gather firm quotes for filter replacement and mapping, and return with more detailed cost and scheduling information.