The updated technology comes at the request of many customers over many years, Johns said.
“Bills are dependent on usage, but overall if usage is consistent, then a monthly bill will be approximately one third of the quarterly bill,” she told this news outlet.
The new meters include technology that will enable the city to take readings from those meters on an hourly basis, which will allow the city to carry out monthly billing, she said. That’s in sharp contrast to having to send a truck out to every single location among the city’s 7,500 accounts.
Advantages to making the transition to monthly billing include making budgeting and bill-paying easier for customers, Johns said. In addition, all sprinkler accounts will be billed together in the same bill, rather than on a separate bill for sprinklers, she said.
One of the biggest advantages for the new meters is the ability for the city and for customers to monitor usage, Johns said.
Customers will be able to monitor their usage via an app or a website, she said.
The new meters also ensure that leak detection can be determined “really quickly,” she said, “so it’s really a win-win situation for water conservation.”
There is no rate increase as a result of the new meters and monthly billing, Johns said. What will increase is the fee for reconnections, which will cost $40, up from $20 previously, if they occur during business hours. Reconnections made after business hours and on weekends will cost $100, up from $40.
“These fees are really just a way of us recovering some of our rising personnel cost related to providing the service, and ... that hasn’t changed for 25 years,” Johns said.
The nearly $4 million Meter Technology Upgrade Project is being financed over a period of 10 to 15 years and paid via the city’s Water Capital fund, city officials previously said.
Council held a first reading of a measure amending the water minimum rates and fees to enable the switch to monthly billing. A second reading of the measure is scheduled for Aug. 1. Customers should receive a transition bill via the new system on Oct. 1, but their first true 30-day monthly bill on Nov. 1, which will be for the billing period of mid-September to mid-October, Johns said.
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