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Mr. Culver provided a photo from inside the water tower made available last year <br />when the tank was drained and repainted. Mr. Culver noted there were many <br />cellular antennae on the outside of the tank generating additional revenue for the <br />City. <br />Mr. Culver provided a graphic in more detail of a typical curb stop, and curb stop <br />key for every service connection, some of which may be buried due to time and <br />ground cover unless located in a paved surface. <br />Mr. Culver further reviewed the old external meters ready by walking up to each <br />home or business. Mr. Culver reported on this separate outside meter and the <br />separate meter inside the home actually measuring water on its own. With two <br />different meters, Mr. Culver admitted that it had created some problems in <br />performing meter swap outs, if and when the wire connection between the outside <br />and inside meters had been intermittent or failed, creating a discrepancy between <br />those readings. Mr. Culver noted that the inside meter was always reading and <br />when performing final readings on interior mechanical meters during the swap out, <br />he noted some differed from the external meter, creating the situation heard around <br />and some horror storied when the next utility bill reflected that additional usage not <br />recorded by the outside meter. Mr. Culver noted sometimes those differences were <br />significant, but represented actual water used, and the property owner was <br />ultimately responsible for that usage. Mr. Culver reported that the City had policies <br />in place to address those situations and payment methods for significant <br />discrepancies on a case by case basis. <br />Mr. Culver noted the new meters currently being installed, automated meter readers <br />(AMR's) consisted of a radio transmission from the meter connected to the main <br />and provided a much more accurate record versus the previous two different meters <br />potentially generating a different ready, and creating an advantage with these new <br />meters and how they're read. Mr. Culver reported that this should reduce personnel <br />costs without the need to visit every residence for each reading, as well as being of <br />benefit to the city and homeowners in tracking usage on a daily basis for early <br />awareness of any leaks or high usage over a 24-hour period and notice provided to <br />homeowners by the City reporting that high reading. <br />For those meters unable to be mounted with the standard 20-30' wire or not <br />providing a good signal for fixed radio receiving units needed for the AMR, Mr. <br />Culver reported that they could be mounted on the exterior of a home for better <br />readings. At the request of Member Seigler, Mr. Culver reported that the AMR's <br />are powered by a battery, but with transmissions not high-powered and only <br />transmitting 1-2 times/day, those batteries had a 20-30 year life span. <br />Mr. Culver moved on to address water service problems in general, including: <br />• Typical issues are leaking services; <br />• Curb stop malfunctions <br />Page 15 of 18 <br />