By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
When the Great Bend City Council approved a $2.46 million purchase from Zenner USA for automated water meter reading ability in August 2022, the thought was to have the new system installed and operating by the following February. With a few delays and leaking issues, the Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) is wrapping up this week.
Great Bend Public Works Director Jason Cauley said crew members worked in the field and on infrastructure.
"They had one piece of infrastructure to install that was damaged on top of the Events Center," said Cauley. "The numbers have gone down significantly on what is left to figure out what needs to be associated for things not reporting."
Zenner had to drill holes in the meter lids to install antennas for the AMI system. The new system electronically sends the water usage to collectors, or towers positioned throughout town, which will eventually get sent to the city’s billing office.
The switch to the AMI system caused dozens of leaks throughout town, but Cauley said those problems have been handled.
"With the municipal install coming in and installing some of the meters, they ran into a few issues," said Cauley. "Our crews have been working with them to get that resolved."
There are approximately 6,500 commercial and residential water meters in the city’s service area. The city’s revenue is projected to increase 2%-3% with the elimination of aged meters that have lost accuracy.