Great Bend awaiting bids for automated water meter reading

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

Last June, the Great Bend City Council approved the city to apply for a $2.2 million loan from the Kansas Public Water Supply Loan for the installation of an automated meter reading system. The water supply loan falls under the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and provides subsidized interest rate loans for municipalities wanting to make water infrastructure improvements.

Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis said the loan was approved last October but there has been a delay in submitting the paperwork to allow the city to release the project out for bids.

"The engineering of PEC has been working with KDHE to develop bid specifications," said Francis. "Because it is a KDHE project, it does have to be engineered. This has dragged out the process."

Keeping employees in the position of water meter readers has been difficult for years and many citizens’ meters are estimated because of this. Great Bend is hoping the technology of an automated meter reading system is the answer to more accurate readings.

The automated meter reading (AMR) system sends meter readings via radio waves to a collector and computer system mounted in a vehicle. By driving around, the entire city could be read in less than one day with no estimations.

Councilmember Natalie Towns was in favor of the advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI. AMI is more expensive but provides more features and can remotely collect customer water usage data in real time.

"I once had a $600 water bill because I had a leak that I didn't know about," said Towns. "The city told me I could get $200 off of that one time, even though it wasn't my fault. That's something AMI could stop. You could see that online immediately when there's a spike in water usage for a customer."

Mayor Cody Schmidt was approved to sign the loan agreement, but the city is only obligated to the project if they withdraw funds. This step reserves the funds through the Kansas Public Water Supply section. The interest rate for loans made last July was 1.33%.