ST. PAUL – Switching all residential water meters, excluding commercial meters, from manual to auto-read meters has been an ongoing process and long-standing priority for the Town of St. Paul.
Switching to auto-read meters will help the Town better manage its water distribution system and billing process, according to administration. CAO Steven Jeffery also told council during the Nov. 12 council meeting that getting manual reads from residential properties has been a struggle.
“It’s something we have to deal with,” Jeffery said. “It’s something I’ve heard from council that we should be prioritizing . . . maybe as quickly as we can.”
According to the CAO, there are around 260 residential meters still needing to be changed, excluding commercial meters. “The supplier currently has a sale on for 20 per cent off of these meters,” he said.
“They do have enough meters in stock to complete the 260 residential meters,” but the sale price was only available until Nov. 13, according to Jeffery.
The total cost of the 260 meters, at a discounted price of $550 each, is estimated to be $143,000.
Coun. Ron Boisvert made a motion to use available funding from the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) and Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF) to cover the expense.
The motion was carried.