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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL — July, 11, 2011 16 7.A. Consider Purchase of New Water Meter Readers (continued) Public Works Director Maurer stated the data would be transmitted hourly from the unit to the receiver on the water tower. The data collected will be transmitted to City Hall every six hours or four times a day. Mayor Grant asked how reliable the Galaxy System was since there did not seem to be too many of them operating in the Midwest area. Public Works Director Maurer stated many of the larger cities are choosing to stay with the Orion System so there are more of these systems in use. Smaller communities that have limited staff hours available are using the Galaxy System. Lexington has installed the Galaxy System and Public Works Superintendent Joe Mooney has been asked to contact them for additional information. He stated that he is convinced the Galaxy System provides the right technology for the City. Mayor Grant expressed concern that Arden Hills would be spending more money than would be necessary for this type of system. Shoreview had invested $600,000 for their system and this city is over two- and -a -half times the size of Arden Hills, and Arden Hills has $400,000 budgeted. He asked Public Works Director Maurer to talk to the surrounding communities and find out what systems they are using and why they chose the systems they did. Public Works Director Maurer stated when he started at the City, the decision had been made to stay with the Badger products to ensure it would work with the City's other equipment. He clarified that Staff could send this item out for competitive bids. Mayor Grant asked how the information would be transmitted to City Hall. Public Works Director Maurer stated the system would transmit using a cellular transmission. Cellular technology is not expected to become obsolete any time in the near future. Councilmember Holden asked if there would be enough space available on the server to accommodate the amount of data this system would transmit. She also asked if this data could be transferred into the Springbrook accounting software the City uses so that the data did not have to be reentered. Public Works Director Maurer explained that Badger is recommending the City have a dedicated computer for the data transmission. There would not be a need for additional space on the server because this information can be stored in different formats such as backups or hard discs. The length of time the City would have to retain this information would need to be established and follow the same guidelines the City has for other types of similar data. He stated he did not believe there was a software update that would enable this software to be transferred into the City's accounting software. Councilmember Holden asked if there would be an alert system that could be set when there are unexpected or unusual changes in the water usage in a short -term usage situation. She gave the example of a washing machine hose breaking.