Hays council to apply for state AMI meter grant but will not pay upfront design costs

The City of Hays voted to apply for a Texas Water Development Board (HB 500) grant to replace water meters with automated meter‐reading (AMI) technology but decided not to pursue 'ready to proceed' status that would require the city to pay an estimated $30–45,000 for engineering and environmental affidavits before the grant decision. Council members said the application deadline is July 30, and staff noted that 'ready to proceed' improves scoring but carries up-front financial risk.

Councilwoman Pam Baloo moved and the council approved a motion to apply for the AMI-meter grant while not incurring the design expense: “That we move forward with applying for the grant for the AMI meters, but that we proceed as not ready,” the motion stated. Staff told council the city would hold a vendor 'lunch and learn' with meter vendors and the engineer to answer outstanding questions about licensing fees and operating costs before committing to a design contract.

Committee and engineering staff gave a cost estimate for replacing roughly 303 meters (meter hardware estimate ~ $175,000) plus engineering and environmental affidavit estimates of roughly $30,000–$45,000. Council and staff discussed concerns about recurring vendor licensing fees for some AMI systems and the risk of paying engineering costs without a guarantee of award; GrantWorks staff said the grant rubric heavily weights 'ready to proceed' projects but that applying without that status lowers the city’s risk exposure.

The motion passed unanimously. Staff will schedule the lunch-and-learn with prospective vendors and Freeland & Turk Engineering and prepare the application for submission under the non-ready-to-proceed option.