Nahant looks to replace water meters

NAHANT – Water meters in town are more than 20 years old and are showing their age.Nahant Town Administrator Mark Cullinan said the mechanical meters have been breaking down and, in some cases, aging meters do not accurately capture water flow.”We are getting calls to repair more of them, “Cullinan said. “We are getting a lot of no-reads on the meters and the DPW (Department of Public Works) has been doing a lot of repairs.”Cullinan said the town is looking at replacing all 1,800 water meters in town and he expects it would cost $550,000, which includes the installation expenses.Selectman Richard Lombard said he would be in favor of replacing the meters.”I think it’s a great thing,” Lombard said. “It’s long overdue.”Cullinan said reading the old meters is not cost effective.”The big thing is reading the meters,” Cullinan said. “It takes approximately 500 man hours a year just to read the meters. It takes two DPW employees two and a half weeks three times a year to read the meters. It puts a real strain on the DPW.”In addition to the time required to read the water meters, Cullinan said an additional 100 to 150 man hours go into repairing the meters and clerical staff in Town Hall spends between 200 and 300 hours a year on administrative matters connected to the water department.”The new meters would be a basic model,” he said. “The DPW would be able to collect the data by just driving by. The whole town could be read in one day by one person. It would probably take an additional two days to check the no-reads. With the new meters I expect readings to be done in 70 man hours as opposed to more than 500 man hours annually.”Cullinan added another advantage to the new meters is that residents would be billed quarterly instead of three times a year.”It’s a better return on our investment,” he said. “I think many customers would rather have quarterly bills – it’s not as big a hit at once. My understanding is the new meters will give the customers the ability to go online and monitor their own water use. There are a lot of positives to the new meters.”Cullinan said when the existing meters were installed, homeowners were charged for their new meter and that would not be the case with the new meters.”We won’t be charging the homeowners for the meters this time,” he said. “We have a balance in our water and sewer fund. Some of the cost of the meters could be paid right out of that. I am not looking for an override.”Cullinan said he would start working on a draft RFP and he added water and sewer fund expenditures have to be approved by Town Meeting.”It could be on the warrant this spring,” he said. “If this moves forward I would like installation to begin next August.”In other business, the selectmen voted to extend the fire, police and Department of Public Works contracts, which expired as of July 1, 2010. The town and unions had agreed to abide by the expired contract until new ones were negotiated and signed. But Cullinan pointed out the recent SJC ruling could nullify any verbal agreements.”When they (contracts) expire,” Cullinan said. “They expire”The selectmen voted unanimously to extend the union contracts through June 30, 2011.