According to both Director of Public Works Don Ouellette and Mayor William Martin, a citywide water meter project was not approved for this year’s capital plan.
The proposed project, slated to cost a total of $2 million over two years in the upcoming five-year capital plan, would have connected water meters in the city to a transmitter-based network to aid in providing more accurate and up-to-date information on water use.
Both Martin and Ouellette, however, confirmed the public information meeting already scheduled for today on the project would still take place.
According to Ouellette, the project was not approved due to “the fact that we had to increase rates” and that the project “is a big ticket item” for the city to take on.
However, he said that he will continue put the project on capital plans moving forward because it is needed in the city.
The proposal, which was part of the proposed capital plan, was slated to cost $1.6 million in 2019, with a 50-50 split between the water and sewer portions of the capital plan.
An additional total of $400,000 was slated for 2020, with that cost also being split equally across the two portions of the plan.
The program would have connected the city’s water meters to a network to more accurately track water use, including potential leaks.
It would have replaced around 70 percent of the city’s roughly 5,800 water meters that are past their designed life expectancies of 15 years, with the remaining 30 percent being fitted with external transmitters to connect to the system.
You can reach
Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257