Laserfiche WebLink
ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 19, 2021 5 <br />City Administrator Perrault stated this was simply a placeholder item. He explained this item <br />was not used much in the last year. He commented further on how the used vehicle market was at <br />this time. <br />Finance Director Bauman discussed the expense of replacing all of the City's water meters and <br />noted staff would have to work on how to fund this project. <br />Councilmember Holden suggested some of the federal government money be used to assist with <br />covering the expense of replacing water meters. She asked if Federal funds can be used for <br />stormwater expenditures in 2022. <br />Finance Director Bauman stated she would have to research this further to ensure that this type <br />of project could be covered by Federal ARPA funds. <br />Mayor Grant questioned if the City has received the Federal ARPA funds. <br />Finance Director Bauman explained she expected the City would receive the funds next week. <br />Councilmember Holden asked if the City applied for an I&I grant from the Met Council. <br />Interim Public Works Director Swearingen stated he had applied for a grant in the amount of <br />$250,000. He reported the City would be receiving a grant, but he would not know the grant <br />amount until later this fall. <br />Councilmember Holden recommended $250,000 in sewer lining be added to the CIP for 2023. <br />Finance Director Bauman questioned where the fund balance from the end of 2020 ($548,000) <br />should be placed. She indicated the Council typically puts this surplus into the PIR Fund. The <br />Council supported the surplus being placed in the PIR Fund. <br />D. Water Meters Discussion <br />Finance Director Bauman stated sometime around December 31, 2020, when staff was working <br />on the 4th quarter utility billing for 2020, it became apparent that we weren't receiving reads on <br />about 300 of our 2600+ meters, mostly in the southern portion of the City. Staff needed to <br />complete the billing cycle per City Code and went about estimating the 4th quarter reads for <br />properties based on usage amounts from the past three years. Staff met with employees from <br />Metering & Technology Solutions who deal with the meters, transmitters and collectors in <br />conjunction with Badger Meter. It was determined that the collectors and meters were operating <br />properly and that the likely cause was signal interference. <br />Finance Director Bauman commented Metering & Technology Solutions suggested that the City <br />have Ancom conduct an RF Study in an attempt to locate the source of any potential interference <br />to the automated water meter reporting system. Ancom had recently worked with another City on <br />identifying interference issues. As staff was preparing the 1st quarter utility billing for 2021, it <br />became apparent that we were still not getting reads on about 150 properties. A note was included <br />in the 03/26/21 Admin Update indicating that letters were being sent out to these properties in an <br />attempt to get accurate meter reads for the billing cycle. The City received about 95 responses to <br />