SILER CITY — Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved a contract to replace old residential water meters with new, state-of-the-art meters with satellite reading capabilities.
Town Manager Hank Raper said 4,200 meters would be purchased and installed across town, with some remaining for future development.
“This will be a substantially improved service for both town hall staff and also our residents,” Raper said. “Town hall staff would have more accurate information as well as residents will be up to date with real-time readings.”
Many water meters throughout Siler City are older and have been in need of replacement, according to Raper. That became more evident after an audit of the water billing department revealed town water customers were being overcharged for water use because of older meters miscommunicating with the town’s billing software.
Raper said the replacement of the meters should help alleviate issues the audit revealed.
“I believe this would correct it,” he told the board. “I don’t want to say definitively because I can’t speak for the financial side of errors, I would hope they’d be compatible — my understanding is that they are.”
The project would cost the town $2,983,600, but over half of the cost would be covered with American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds. The remaining cost would be paid over the span of 10 years via a payment plan.
Raper said as new subdivisions are proposed and approved, a part of the developers’ fees will go toward paying for the installation of the satellite meters.
“They would have to pay, as part of the development, the cost of these meters,” he said. “That cost will not be passed on to the other residents of the town or the town; it will be on developers.”
Raper said replacing the meters is an essential step the town needed to take to ensure it was prepared for growth, as well as up to date with technologies other municipalities use.
“This is the future,” he said. “This is what communities are trying to go to, so this will quickly become a new expectation for customers who only have this type of technology when it comes to reading their utility bills.”
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com and on Twitter at @HeedenTaylor.