The city of Plano is going to a new water meter reading system that eventually will replace the employees who now must go to every house to read the meters.
Josh Beyer, city water superintendent, said the present purchase is for new meter interface units (MIUs), that will be installed on every home. Changing the meters can be done by city employees without entering the house or bothering the customers, he said. And eventually, this will lead to the entire city being read by recently purchased readers that will be installed on the city’s two water towers, according to Beyer.
The city waived bidding for the readers and agreed to purchase the Neptune readers from Water Resources. Beyer asked for approval to purchase 2,124 MIU meters at a cost of $233,640. The remainder of the 3,900 meters will be changed later, he said.
In a memo to the council, Beyer said a good, reliable water meter reading system is the backbone of the city’s water and wastewater system. “It is critical in providing revenue to fund personnel, capital improvements and overall maintenance needs to both systems,” he said.
Beyer said a reliable meter reading system also provides a fair and accurate billing system for the residents by eliminating the need for estimating customers water usage, which will reduce the possibility of overbilling customers
He noted that the city recently purchased a new fixed network system of equipment that will be mounted on the city’s two water towers. This will allow the reading of the new MIU meters throughout the city from the two locations and relaying the information to the city offices.
Beyer said this purchase will leave the department with a reserve fund balance of $294,036 for other uses throughout the year.
In other business during the council's Oct. 9 meeting, council members awarded a contract to Copenhaver Construction Co. of $224,770 to install a splash pad at Lathrop Park. Copenhaver's bid was the lowest of two received, the other being $225,000.
After considerable discussion at the previous meeting, council members postponed action on accepting the bid because council members had other questions. The council vote to accept the bid was unanimous.
Joseph A. Regis of Hamilton Engineers said in a memo to the council that after the contract is awarded they will issue a deductive change order of $16,000 to delete the remainder of the rain garden work, lowering the final project cost to $208,770.
The council also accepted a bid of $63,251 from Alliance Contractors Inc. to do the city’s 2017 Sidewalk Replacement Program.
Darrin Boyer, director of Public Works, said this was the only bid received for the work.
In a memo to Boyer from Matthew J. Felter, project engineer for HR Green of Yorkville, said, “We have analyzed the bid documents and checked them for accuracy and find Alliance Contractors, Inc., to be a qualified bidder.
“While the estimate ($56,000), is lower than the bid amount, rebidding the project is not anticipated to be beneficial. The project drew interest from numerous contractors, as several bid packets were distributed, but it still only yielded one bidder,” Felter said.
He said it is expected that additional bids will not be received if the project is rebid.
“It is presumed that the higher bid prices were due to the timing of this project with the end of the construction season,” Felter said.
Based on this information, HR Green recommended the city award the contract to Alliance Contractors Inc., Felter said in the memo. Council members voted unanimously to award the bid to Alliance.
Council members also approved a proposal to make repairs to the police department’s air conditioning system. The council hired Mechanical Inc. of Westmont to fix the department’s system that has not been working properly for several days. The estimated cost will not be more than $10,400, according to an estimate received by Randy Klatt, street superintendent.
There are three options. One is to replace the condenser fan motor at cost of $1,582, the second is to replace the compressor for $9,730 and the third option is to replace both of these items at a cost of $10,312. Council members approved having all the items replaced.
Council members approved spending up to $12,000 for the removal of biosolids or sludge from the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Boyer said Ag Tech Services gave him a quote of not more than $12,000 to remove an estimated 463 cubic yards of the sludge from the city’s sludge storage building at a cost of $22.50 a yard.
“Biosolids are the end product generated by the wastewater treatment plant and require land application for ultimate disposal,” Boyer told council members.
He said Ag Tech services are qualified to perform the work in accordance with state and federal EPA standards.