Town administrator warns of aging water meters, recommends replacement and testing

Town Administrator Aiken told the council the town is seeing widespread failures among older residential water meters and urged action to better measure incoming and outgoing water.

“The meters, the majority of them have exceeded their life expectancy 10 years,” Aiken said, noting staff found “dead meters” and corroded transmitters. He reported, “This month, we had 24 meters that didn't read,” which forced crews to send two workers to pull meters, photograph serials and add readings manually.

Aiken walked the council through options: buying newer ultrasonic residential meters that lack gears and measure flow directly, replacing seven large intake meters, or purchasing a calibration/tester for intake meters. He reported a $100,000 line in the draft budget for intake‑meter replacement and said quotes for calibration testers ranged from about $30,000 to $66,000 plus recurring software costs.

Councilors asked about calibration frequency and whether in‑house testing makes sense. Aiken said many vendors prefer customers to remove and ship meters for calibration and that finding a local service has been difficult. He recommended replacing worn residential meters as a priority while the town continues to evaluate long‑term calibration options.