Bids Submitted for Lavonia Digital Water Meters

The City of Lavonia is in the process of evaluating three draft proposals for new digital water meters.

In April, the city announced it would be making the switch to digital meters as a cost saving measure.  Lavonia City manager Gary Fesperman said the city has  more than 3,000 customer water meters. Currently, a meter reader reads about 300 meters a day, and must get out and look at each meter individually, which is more difficult in rural areas.

With a digital drive by status meter, Fesperman said the meter reader would be able to drive by and pick up the information and it would be transmitted to a computer at city hall or downloaded to that computer when he was done.

At the city council work session this week, Fesperman said the automated software will have the capability to be upgraded in the future.

“Once converted, this will change all of the meters in the system to what we call drive by status, with base read capability at a future date once the towers are installed” Fesperman said. “This is what most communities in our area are going to now.”

Base read means a computer in the city hall offices will be able to read all 3,000 water meters and monitor them without a meter  reader having to drive through neighborhoods.

Right now, he said the three bids that have come in range from $400,000 to $700,000.

“It’s a toss up,” Fesperman told the council. “You’ve got pro’s over here and pro’s over there.  They’re pretty close as far as quality and what they offer in terms of service. It’s just a matter of which way we decide to go based on what our needs are.”

Fesperman said the city will apply for a GEFA loan to pay for the project.  He told the council he would have a recommendation on a water meter company within the 60 days.