CT2015-152 Approval Letter - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Cortez Agenda Item 18a January 26-27,2015 Board Meeting(Updated January 28,2015) Page 2 of 6 Background The City's drinking water system supplies the residents of Cortez and several adjacent areas outside of the City's municipal boundaries, including Montezuma Water District No.1 and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The City's water system consists of raw water drawn from McPhee Reservoir, followed by a small water storage reservoir, water treatment plant, finished water storage tanks, a distribution system and associated administrative offices. Currently, the City's Public Works Department utilizes manual reads of water meters on a monthly basis. This is done utilizing two full time employees and assigned trucks. The meters are read using remotely-mounted odometers for each meter in the system; therefore, all meters must be physically visited every month. There are approximately 3,400 meters in the system. This method of collecting billing data is not cost effective as it is inefficient and can be problematic regarding human error, coverage of down personnel, timely reading/billing, and provides only static information. Through this project, the City intends to replace its current meters with Automated Meter Reading (AMR) meters. This technology uses radios to read meters via a drive-by or a fixed-base receiver to read and store data on every metered account in the distribution system. Loan Feasibility Study Shane Hale, City Manager, prepared the Loan Feasibility Study, titled "Feasibility of the Water Meter Replacement Project for the City of Cortez," dated November 2014. Technical support was prepared by Ken Torres, P.E., City of Cortez. The study includes an alternative analysis and construction cost estimate. The feasibility study was prepared in accordance with the CWCB guidelines. Borrower- City of Cortez The City was incorporated in 1886 and currently has a population of 8,500 residents. It manages its water system through a water activity enterprise fund. User fees fund the enterprise. The average monthly water bill is approximately $43. On average, the City delivers 2,600 acre-feet annually; therefore it is a Covered Entity as defined in §37-60-126(1)(b), C.R.S. (2014) requiring a water conservation plan in order to execute a loan contract with the CWCB. The City's water conservation plan was approved by the CWCB on December 29, 2010. Water Rights The City's drinking water supply comes from the Dolores River and McPhee Reservoir. The City owns a direct flow right of 4.2 cfs and diverts approximately 2,800 acre-feet annually. Project Description The goal of this Project is to replace the City's manually read meters with new AMR meters. The City considered the following alternatives: Alternative 1 -No-action: This alternative was considered unacceptable as its outdated meters do not consistently provide the City with accurate information, are subject to human error when readings are made, require two full time employees, and provide only static information once per month. Selected Alternative 2-Replace existing meters: The City chose this alternative based in part on the operational savings it expects by replacing two full time (FT) employees and associated vehicle costs with a 0.1 FT position. It also expects to recoup lost revenues due to under-metering by aged devices. Additionally, unbilled and unmetered irrigation water used by the City's Park and Recreation Department would be added to the metering system. The Project includes the removal and replacement of approximately 3,400 meters, relocation of 180 meters into new meter pits, upgrading the entire system to AMR with radio read capabilities, and a new software system.