Sentinel Correspondent
WELCOME — On Tuesday the Welcome City Council heard from Lee Martin, who explained new metering and technology solutions being considered by the council. Welcome has about 326 water meters.
The council discussed doing all the meters and only doing half this year and half in two years to make sure they had enough money in the fund. The meters would be read through the cell phone towers and could be read by software at the city hall and by city employees and residents. The city fund would pay and the residents may be charged a small fee for installation (maybe $1 or so). The residents would be contacted to make an appointment before a company would install the new meter heads. For most of the meters, the meter base would be used and just the top would be replaced since some of the meters are not that old. The city pump could be metered and show water usage to detect leaks and the residences would also show water usage and water leaks. This would show when the leak started and where to look to fix it. Mr. Martin’s company has meters in stock so the delay would not be long. The city would be charged approximately $60 or more for installation at each house. The software and training and updates would be about $6,500 for the city. The decision was tabled and will be discussed at the next meeting with more information from Mr. Martin.