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MANSFIELD — Public Works Director Dave Remy said Tuesday the City of Mansfield doesn’t know how much total water it’s billing residents for — two years into a $17 million water meter replacement program aimed at more accurately capturing the data.
“I wish that I could. It truly bothers me that I can’t pull numbers and tell you,” Remy said in response to public records requests by Richland Source for the information.
He said the problem stems from a compatibility issue in proprietary software owned by the two companies the city uses in the water meter information collection and billing process — Aclara and Tyler Technologies.
Aclara has the software used in the meter measurement process, which feeds into the New World billing software owned by Tyler Technologies.
“It’s been a constant issue and I will be very frank. It’s been a constant issue between Aclara and New World as to how this system can run or should run from the beginning,” he said.
“There were issues and it frustrated a lot of people.”
“(Tyler Technologies) have always been resistant about allowing direct talks between Aclara and themselves and sharing information and sharing systems,” he said. “They have put us in the middle of that.
“In a perfect world, and in a world that should have been, Aclara should have been able to communicate directly (with Tyler Technologies) input the system (and) share information.
“In my mind, it goes back to proprietary interests and a willingness to share and ability to share without stepping on someone else’s toes,” Remy said.
Despite that, the public works director thinks the numbers are pointing up.
“From everything I can see, our billing consumption is right around 50 percent … maybe a little higher. But I can’t say for certain and I won’t be able to until we iron out these compatibility issues, which we discover on a daily basis.”
“I will be honest with you. Pandora’s Box is not the right word, but it seems like we have opened up all of these problems that were there that nobody knew about before. We are trying to solve them on a daily basis,” Remy said.
So will the water meter replacement program pay for itself through increased water/sewer revenue, which is what the city administration promised residents when council approved the plan in May 2019.
At the time, city engineer Bob Bianchi told City Council that Mansfield only received revenue on 40 percent of the water it produced in 2018. He said then the city produced 9.3 million gallons of water per day and billed for only 3.8 million — about 40 percent.
The more accurate measurement, and the increased revenue, was the “foundation” of badly needed water/sewer infrastructure improvements needed, the engineer said.
“This is important. I cannot stress enough how important this is,” Bianchi said. “This is the foundation of the revenue that’s associated with the projects we talk about. If we have a shaky foundation, we know what potentially could happen.”
The city blamed the bulk of the difference on aging, inaccurate meters.
Mayor Tim Theaker said at the time, “If you use a gallon of gas in your automobile, you pay for a gallon of gas. It should be the same with (water/sewer bills).”
Given Remy’s claim the city doesn’t know yet how many gallons it’s actually billing for, it’s too soon to tell if the meter system is doing what it was promised to do.
The city knows how much water it’s producing — 9.2 million daily gallons in 2019, 8.5 million in 2020 and 9.5 million in 2021, according to Remy.
And water revenues are increasing, according to Linn Steward, the city’s finance director, whose office is projecting $20.25 million in combined water/sewer revenue in 2022.
That’s a 41-percent increase over the $14.35 million collected in 2018 on residential and commercial accounts, likely a mix of more accurate usage measurement and a series of water and sewer rate hikes approved by City Council in recent years.
Remy, whose office has overseen the massive project that was slowed by COVID-19, said he thinks the city is on the right track with the new, more accurate meters and improved data tracking system — despite the ongoing software compatibility issues.
“My belief is yes, it will (pay for itself),” he said, adding the city is paying about $1.5 million annually on the 10-year bond the city obtained for the project.
When City Council approved the project, the actual cost was listed as $13.3 million with another $2.4 in interest over the lifespan of the bond. Maintenance of the system over the 10 years will cost $1.57 million.
The project was scheduled to begin in May 2020, an untimely start considering COVID-19 began about two months earlier.
The company doing the installation of the meters operated in compliance with national and state COVID guidelines, but there is no doubt the pandemic slowed down the meter conversion efforts.
In fact, Remy said the city still has about 1,300 of the 18,000-plus water meters to replace, an effort now being handled by city employees at the rate of about 20 per week.
The contract with the company handling the installation ended in September of 2021 with still 3,000 to 4,000 meters to install, primarily in residences, according to Remy.
“We we decided it was cheaper for us to take that project on and finish it out rather than contract it our or extend the contract,” Remy said.
He said the city is contacting residents to schedule appointments. Until all of the meters have been replaced, Remy said, the city cannot convert its measuring system to gallons from the current CCF, a measuring term that represents 100 cubic feet of water.
That conversion in the billing process further clouds accurate measurements, he said.
“We have basically put into effect a program that we if we set up an appointment and they fail to go through with it, we turn the water off until the meter is installed,” Remy said, adding city ordinances permit the shut-off action.
“That’s been somewhat effective.”
What’s been less effective is the system used to monitor consumption, even with an aging water distribution system that has frequent line breaks and leaks.
“There’s always going to be loss of water in a system. We have a very old water system. So there is going to be ground leakage throughout the system at some point.
“The hope would be that we would get to 60 percent and then ultimately, and hopefully, with (American Rescue Plan Act) funds and infrastructure funds, (the city can) address the service lines and the mains. We’re moving toward that target,” Remy said.
City of Mansfield combined water/sewer revenue (residential/commercial)
2018 — $14,351,676
2019 — $17,583,495
2020 — $16,754,551
2021 — $18,464,096
2022 (projected) — $20,250,000
