Plympton-Wyoming spend $1.2 million to replace hundreds of old water meters.

According to Adam Sobanski, the public works director, in a report to council the “project will replace old or obsolete meters, as water meters become less accurate with age (costing the town money in lost water revenue.)The reading system will be upgraded from a walk by system that takes two to three weeks to complete meter reads to a drive by system which should take two to four days to complete.

“Approximately one third of the existing water meters are over twenty years old,” Sobanski added. “The current meter reading technology is obsolete and has become unreliable. It is estimated that water meter reading process currently costs approximately
$4,000” per billing cycle.

The town considered the move before the pandemic but it had to put the plan on hold for two years, not wanting to send installers into people’s homes to do the work. But the town did put aside some cash for the project.

By the time Plympton-Wyoming went out to the marketplace to find a supplier and installer, the costs had risen.

In 2023, the tenders again came in higher than anticipated before the pandemic, but the town did have money set aside for the work to cushion the blow.

Sobanski met with the preferred company, Neptune Technologies Group, which said another 247 meters between the ages of 15 and 20 years could be included in the contract at the same unit price. Those additional meters will cost $105,583 bringing the total cost of the project to $1,239,024 still under the $1.5 million the town set aside in 2023 for the project.

Sobanski says the replacement program will start in May with a public information program before the installations begin.