Water meters, trails, and benches all discussed at Hamlet City Council meeting

HAMLET — Following months of presentations and discussions, MeterSYS of Raleigh will be putting boots on the ground in Hamlet to assess the city’s water meters.

Andy Honeycutt, MeterSYS President and Chief Consulting Officer, offered the council a multivariate approach toward dealing with what has been estimated to be a staggering 36% treated, but non-revenue generating water.

“It is not us necessarily bringing in one and only approach to solving metering challenges but to really give you options that meet with your expectations, your objectives, and moving that forward in a very planned and methodical way,” Honeycutt told the council members.

Honeycutt reiterated the benefits of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) from previous meetings. He said that MeterSYS’ technology will provide the city and its buildings, whether residential, industrial, or commercial, with data and intelligence on consumption patterns that will help ameliorate water that the city is treating, but unable to bill for.

Following discussions with city employees, and City Manager Matt Christian, Honeycutt presented three options for the city moving forward.

Survey

Honeycutt suggested that the most essential piece to revamping Hamlet’s water system is an initial assessment of the system itself.

“What the field survey is going to allow us to do is understand those meters that you can retrofit, which is, leave the meter in place and put a new register and new transmitter and lower your cost, or if that meter, we find to be way out of tolerance, way out of useful life, we’ll go ahead and note that in the documentation and schedule that for replacement,” Honeycutt said.

Honeycutt said that Hamlet currently has 4,100 water meters across the system. A survey will allow MeterSYS to, “pull every lid, and look at every meter.” MeterSYS will annotate each meter’s location, type, size, and condition.

According to Honeycutt, surveying the water meters will also allow the company to assess Hamlet’s lead and copper at the service line level, a federal EPA requirement due by October of 2024, and entirely independent of implementing the advanced metering infrastructure.

Pilot

In prior council meetings, Christian posited starting with a pilot program of 500 meters. Council member Abbie Covington, concerned with sample size, suggested 1,500 meters in order to accurately aggregate data. The council ultimately voted to tacitly move forward with applying advanced metering infrastructure to 1,500 meters.

“The pilot program certainly is, as you have expressed interest in, is putting in a defined quantity of meters, putting in the network to get that meter read in, and then building in the software that allows you to use that information effectively,” Honeycutt said.

Honeycutt illustrated the advantages of an initial pilot program and drafted an estimated billing cost on a mockup of 1,000 meters as a reference point.

Honeycutt said the pilot program would “coordinate the integration of data between the meter data system and the billing system.” Additionally, MeterSYS would train city water staff on how to use the new system.

Honeycutt added that much of the requisite cost to implement the pilot program would be a one time initial cost.

“A lot of the imbedded cost in the pilot would not be replicated in the future, for example, setting up and doing a lot of the software integration, investment that doesn’t have to be replicated in future steps.” he said.

Hybrid

Lastly, Honeycutt described combining the survey and pilot programs and presented a corresponding cost to the council.

“We would combine inventory, including lead and copper assessment, and also getting AMI into the system,” Honeycutt said.

Honeycutt suggested truncating the number of meters in the initial phase if the council decided to go the hybrid route. He said retrofitting or replacing 500 meters would be a good jumping off point, while also doing an overall meter inventory, and assessing the lead and copper pipes throughout the city.

The council ultimately voted 5-1 in favor of MeterSYS moving forward with a survey of all the city’s water meters at a cost of $152,022, but not without some serious concerns from council member and Mayor Pro Tem Jesse McQueen.

In a previous meeting, McQueen was the lone nay in a vote to earmark American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to MeterSYS and the water meter program. McQueen said then, his decision wasn’t a function of Honeycutt’s presentation, or MeterSYS’ program, but rather his belief that the funds could be allocated to other areas of need in the city.

McQueen also aired concerns that the unaccounted-for city water was not just a metering issue but could also be rooted in yet discovered issues with the overall utility.

“I’d like to wait until we get some information. I think its very interesting that out of 36% unaccounted, the absolute best we are going to get is down to 28% (incorporating AMI), which is still high, which tells me, we’ve got problems on the other side of the meters too. I think that’s huge,” McQueen said.

Nonetheless, MeterSYS will be moving forward with a comprehensive assessment of every single water meter in Hamlet.

City Lake Park

In other business Christian presented a proposal for the council to allocate funds to complete the already existing trail at City Lake Park into a full loop.

“We received a $400,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, called a rural transformation grant, That $400,000 is to help us construct this trail,” Christian explained. “When I was working with commerce to sign the agreements and get the agreements ready for obligating funds to the city for the grant, I was informed that the grant funds would not pay for any design or engineering services.”

Accordingly, Christian requested roughly $130,000 to complete the requisite design, surveying, and engineering necessary to complete the project.

“We will design and engineer the entire project using the ARPA funds; that would make the entire project shovel ready and allow us to utilize the full $400,000…towards the first phase of construction,” Christian continued.

Council member Oscar Sellers made a poignant observation.

“If you don’t spend the $150,000, you don’t get the $400,000, so I don’t see where we have a choice,” he said.

Despite several variables, like exact routes, bridges, and wetland encroachment, the council voted unanimously to cover the cost of the City Lake loop project, not to exceed $150,000.

Benches, Trash Cans, and Planters

In the next few months, the Hamlet streets will be lined with additional accoutrement.

Following a grant figured into last year’s state budget, the city has procured 12 sets of benches, planters, and trash cans to deploy throughout the city.

Christian sought input from the council as to the location and orientation of the new streetscape sets. He presented ten possible locations across the city, but the primary question at hand — the direction the benches will face.

“If you have the back of the bench on the street facing the building, it helps create a pedestrian corridor where you can highlight people on the street. You know, if you come out of the shop, out of the ice cream shop and you want to sit down and have an ice cream. It also kind of protects traffic, creates a barrier to separate the traffic from the pedestrians,” Christian said.

The alternative — “If we place benches with the back facing the buildings, and the front facing the street, it kind of focuses the view towards the street and the traffic and people walking down the sidewalk,” Christian continued, “It also helps activate the store fronts, especially if someone is driving by, sees a nice store front and a nice new bench and planters and flowers, it kind of dresses up the store front.”

In the next few weeks, Christian and city employees will place half of the new bench sets in various configurations throughout Hamlet. When the council reconvenes next month, they will discuss the merits of each, and decide on how to disperse the remaining bench sets.