HomeMy WebLinkAbout8.b. Amendment to Water Meter Installation Policyx
CITY OF ROSEMOUNT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR ACTION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: April 3, 2001
AGENDA ITEM: Amendment to Water Meter Installation
AGENDA SECTION:
Policy
New Business
PREPARED BY: Tom Burt, City Administrator
AGEN IT.M . , --
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i `g
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ATTACHMENTS: Amended Ordinance, Background material
APPROVED BY:
on conversion from Denise Werner
At the March 12, 2001 Utility Commission meeting, the Commission approved the changes
recommended to them in the water meter installation policy. The type of remote reader is
being changed from a telephone read to a radio read. This will take place in all new
construction homes and any homes with meters, which need to be repaired. Eventually a
process will be set up to change out all existing old style meters, however that will be over a
period of time.
The Utility Commission has the authority to change the process, however, since this policy is
outlined in the attached ordinance it has to be read at City Council level and published in the
legal newspaper.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: FIRST READING
COUNCIL ACTION:
3
CITY OF ROSEMOUNT
DAKOTA COUNTY, YiINNESOTA
ORDINANCE NO XI.22
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 4, CHAPTER 1 WATER AND SEWER
SYSTEMS, ARTICLE B: CONNECTIONS, SECTION 4 -111-2: WATER METERS
Section 1. Rosemount City Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 4 -1B -2 is amended as follows:
4 -1B -2: WATER METERS: Before any water conveyed through the City water system
shall be used or utilized on the land or premises of any person, there shall first be installed a
water meter that will accurately measure the water consumed on the premises.
A. All meters for any use shall be furnished by the City. The City shall charge the cost of
the meter and automatic meter - reading equipment to the applicant €er on the plumbin g
building permit. This cost shall be set and amended by City Council resolution as is
deemed necessary by the Council.
G. B. Said meters shall be repaired from time to time as is necessary to ensure accurate
measuring of the flow of water; except that whenever a meter has been damaged due to
negligence on the part of persons other than the employees of the City, the owner,
occupant or user of the premises or such other persons desiring the use of the water shall
reimburse the City for expense of repairing any such meter. Upon failure to reimburse
the City within a reasonable time and upon demand therefor, the water serviees and
interests of the City. expenses incurred and billed will be placed on the property taxes
during the semi - annual delinquent water bill certification.
D-C. It shall be unlawful for any person to tamper v.-A alter, bypass, or in any manner
whatsoever interfere with the proper use and functioning of water meters within the City.
ELD. All water meters shall be and remain the propery of the City.
F�E. Installation of the horn, raising the curb box to nnished grade, and flushing of the lines
shall be the responsibility of a plumber duly licensed and registered according to the
Minnesota State Plumbing Code Rules. ,
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G. B. Said meters shall be repaired from time to time as is necessary to ensure accurate
measuring of the flow of water; except that whenever a meter has been damaged due to
negligence on the part of persons other than the employees of the City, the owner,
occupant or user of the premises or such other persons desiring the use of the water shall
reimburse the City for expense of repairing any such meter. Upon failure to reimburse
the City within a reasonable time and upon demand therefor, the water serviees and
interests of the City. expenses incurred and billed will be placed on the property taxes
during the semi - annual delinquent water bill certification.
D-C. It shall be unlawful for any person to tamper v.-A alter, bypass, or in any manner
whatsoever interfere with the proper use and functioning of water meters within the City.
ELD. All water meters shall be and remain the propery of the City.
F�E. Installation of the horn, raising the curb box to nnished grade, and flushing of the lines
shall be the responsibility of a plumber duly licensed and registered according to the
Minnesota State Plumbing Code Rules. ,
Fe ete, r-emete mete. B.ter-faee unit and will tum en the wa4er- when an appointment
is made ,: +t, +t,o /`:� t.. .,♦ F (24 L, a f install ♦ The .,, t i+ •
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shall be pr-evided- plumber shall set the meter as follows:
Location: Meter settings shall be located in the utility, laundry or furnace room and in
every case shall be located no more than eight feet (8) from the nearest floor drain on the
same floor level.
2. Installation: The setting shall be installed to provide that the meter be between six (6 ")
and twelve (12 ") inches from a wall and between eighteen (18 ") and thirty -six (36 ")
inches from the finished floor, and shall be rigidly supported with a permanent support.
The water meter shall be readily accessible with a minimum clear space of two feet (2')
in all other directions. This water meter shall be a Sensus ECR and measure in 1,000
gallons.
3. Valves: Each meter setting shall be provided with an approved valve on the street side
and the house side of the meter. Such valves shall be well protected from freezing.
4. Meter Horns: Meter setting devices (meter horns) shall be used for installation of one
inch (F) or smaller meters.
Vertical Piping: All vertical piping extending from the water meter up to the horizontal
run shall be no smaller than one inch (1 ").
6. Meter Ike Transceiver Units (AHXU): Meter intef€aee transceiver units shall be
securely installed , by the plumber, on the water pipe or wall at least five (S') feet above
the floor. Wi to t h e ate fnetef n si N r, , te lo.,� en e :., k � � l �
v vY „v „v JKV , ,� Vt./,KVlt J11K11 VV
inehes (1 ff efn the wa4ef fnetef. The water ffieter shall be eenneeted te the N41U with
thf:ee (3) wire eenduetef: type as speeified by the City. The N41U shall be eenneeted te4he
telephone jaek with telephone wife and an RR 1 jaek plug. All wires shall be secured by
use of wire ties or clips.
7. Remete Reading
Deviees� Remete
tetieh be
installed in
iitili maters
three (3') t f ur-
pads shall
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the area of ether-
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ex4efier- wall.
typieally, the r-emete
shall be installed
en a side wall within twelve feet
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7
S. Z Effective Date: This subsection P E shall take effect on all plumbing or building permits
applied for on or after 3anua May 1, 49W 2001, on all newly constructed homes or
other buildings or replacement or relocation of water meters.
G-F. If a meter fails to register or accurately measure the water, the charge for water consumed
shall be paid for at the established rate based upon past average billings as determined by
the City. (Ord. X1.19, 11 -19 -1996)
Section II. This ordinance shall be effective following its passage and publication.
ADOPTED this day of April, 2001 by the City Council of the City of Rosemount.
Cathy Busho, Mayor
ATTEST:
Linda Jentink, City Clerk
Published this day of , 2001 in the Rosemount Town Pages.
interoffice
MEMORANDUM
date: February 23, 2001
to: Jeff May
from: Denise Wemer
re: Conversion to Radio Read and eventually the Vehicle Read meter system
Due to my dissatisfaction with the phone read system, I have been doing some checking into the
vehicle read system recently and would like to present the following issues to you and the Utility
Commission for consideration.
In the early 90's when the phone read system was implemented it was the technology of the
moment, the radio read system was very new and was not perfected yet and the vehicle read
system was almost non - existent. However, the vehicle read system and radio read systems have
taken over as the way to go, leaving the phone read lacking and way behind.
Here is a sample timeline for a billing cycle, using the first quarter 2001 as a model:
1. Feb. 26 -28, commercial accounts are read by public works
2. On Feb. 28, I need to process all payments, adjustments, finals through and including the 28'
and balance month -end before downloading the commercial reads. The handhelds need to be
reloaded for Mar. 1 so RMR can begin reading the residentials. Also, the phone read route
must be ready to accept reads beginning Mar. 1. If we get snow and my commercial reader is
pulled to plow, we have a problem.
3. While RMR is reading (contract states 7 -10 days to complete) I am downloading and proofing
routes as they are finished and preparing lists of re -reads for public works (incorrect reads,
missed reads, malfunctions, etc.) then doing all the file maintenance on the accounts so the
reads and bills will be correct. This process continues until all routes are read, proofed, re-
read as necessary and all computer updates are made, hopefully around the 16` of Mar.
4. Reports are printed and proofed checking the fees and usages on billings.
5. Bills need to be printed by the 19'' and folded so the seniors can stuff them on the 21'.
Printing the bills and folding (provided the folder works) takes an entire day. The bills need
to be sorted and grouped for stung. If I have printer or folder problems I have to change the
seniors.
6. Also this cycle, I will have certification in the middle of the reading time (twice /year, again
in Sept. period) which will slow things down a little.
It is basically a steady 3 -4 week process from the time I prepare for the first readings to the day
the seniors stuff the bills. If anything gets in the way, weather, equipment problems, software
"glitches" I'm in trouble as it currently just takes this long and really can't be shortened up at all.
With our new Civic software, everything is date driven. The phone reads are date driven. If
these dates clash, which happened last quarter, many reads don't get completed, bills are sent out
with no usage so the next bill is very large, phone calls are heavy......... it is all a trickle down
effect. If one step is off or out of sync it continues to create problems down the line.
Another problem, although small now, is the fact that we require homeowners to have a phone
line for the MIU` (phone read transponder). We have had two residents very upset because they
had to put a phone line into their home so we could read the meter when they were not planning
to have phone service into their home. I was told their circuit line cost about $20.00 /month
which means they have to pay $240.00 /year so we can read their meter. Certainly this is unusual
in the times of computers, internet, etc. that we live in but for someone as these residents who
travel, work, and live off cell phones it is an expensive imposition.
My proposal is to eliminate completely the phone read system, internally I would make a change
on each account and have them read by RMR like we now read the rest of the city. All new
developments would have a MXU (Meter Transceiver Unit) installed instead of the MIU's we
installed for phone reads (cost for meter would increase by the $25.00 difference between MIU to
MXU unit prices currently). As time and money permits, replace all MIU's with MXU's to get
into the radio reading system, then begin to add the NfXU's to the rest of the city read by
touchpad now. MXU units are $125.00 (MIU's are S100.00). We have approximately 750
MIU's installed to date. If we are able to do this I would like to begin as soon as possible so we
can begin with Evermoor as this is such a large development. We already have a few meters
installed there. As early as this fall, new MXU units will be available at $80.00- $85.00 each.
This will not make the current MXU's obsolete they are just redesigning the units and with
technology they are slightly smaller and will be cheaper.
The difference between radio and touch read is with touch you actually have to put the reader on
the pad attached to the house, physically touching each location. Some homes (about 275) still
have the old digital meters in them, these require a manual entry on the handheld increasing the
margin for error and possible time spent re- reading. With radio read you stay in a vehicle and hit
a button at each location. The ultimate goal is vehicle read where you get all reads in a
"proximity" with one touch of a button. For example, the city of Columbia Heights is on full
vehicle read and has approximately 6,000 meters. At the top of one hill in their town they touch
one button from their vehicle and get 1,000 reads, and can read the entire city in 3 —3.5 hours.
Even with the radio read it is all done from a vehicle so the weather is not a problem, it is quicker
and easier to drive up and down a street rather than scaling shrubbery, fences, decks, etc. Most
cities use their own staff to do radio (and vehicle) reads, it can take 1 person 2 -3 days but is still
quicker and cheaper than RMR. We currently pay RNM $1400.00 - $1500.00 per quarter to read
about 3,800 homes now. R-MR would also do radio reads for a cost of $.15 - $.20 /read as
opposed to $.45 Nve pay now (in 2000, 2001 rate unavailable at this time) per read for touch reads
per quarter.
I spoke to the City of Hastings, they have had radio read for 3 years and are using vehicle read
for the first time on Feb. 27 Asked if she liked the system, her response was: "I wish we had
gone directly to the vehicle read but am glad we are fully functional now. The accuracy has been
phenomenal. We have to do very few re -reads and any "glitches" we have encountered were
minor and easily rectified. I'm so glad we never had phone read, I've never heard anything good
about it."
Another good thing about this system is we control the dates, they don't control us as it is now.
This would make for a much easier and smoother cycle, and give us the extra time we sometimes
need when a problem occurs, without disrupting the process or incurring staff overtime.
Attached are the information sheets from U S Filter and a bid for converting the software and
handhelds *. The handhelds we now have would have to be replaced in order to radio read, and
the new ones also do touch read for finals or re- reads.
*The expense for the handhelds can be deferred until 2002 if necessary for budgeting so we could
implement right away. Paul Thom, our sales rep., offered to lend us two of the new handhelds to
use for this year.
To go full vehicle read, it requires a laptop and a suitcase -sized unit for the vehicle at the cost of
approximately $21,000.00. This could be built into the budget a few years out. Paul stated it
wouldn't be cost effective to have the vehicle unit until the city is 50 -75 % converted to radio read
so how quickly we get to this point depends on how aggressive we are with installations and /or
change -outs of existing NIIU's and touchpads. Another option to this large expenditure would be
to `rent" the vehicle unit from another city. Hastings is already talking to Prescott about doing
this for them for a rather nominal fee for each quarterly use (I understand $200.00 - $300.00).
The bottom line is we could get into this right now for the software changes and adjusting the
meter fees by $25.00, with the handheld replacement now or by 2002. The largest expense will
be the NIXU conversion. We currently have approximately 4600 meters installed in the city right
nosy. If %ve wait for any conversions or additions to exiting other than new right now, this comes
to $391,000.00 at 585.00 each.
If eve eliminate the phone read system completely as I propose, the software upgrade we will get
for STARS will be in Windows not DOS. This may help our problem with sharing the program
or having a separate workstation as now.
Paul Thom can be available at a meeting if there are further questions or explanations needed.
U S Filter can also do the MIU -MXU conversions or installs for $30.00 each. We give them a
list and they handle everything from scheduling the appointments with the homeowners to giving
me a disk to download all the new information into my utility billing program. If a meter needs
to be chanced out also that would be $40.00 (we still have 275 digital meters that eventually need
to be replaced). Paul stated they can be as fast or as slow on the conversion as we need.
from the desk of...
Denise Werner
Deputy Registrar
Utility Billing Clerk
2875 145th Street West
Rosemount MN 55068
322 -2030
Fax: 423 -5203