Sugar City Database Final Report

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. TOWN OF SUGAR CITY Final Report November, 1995 BACKGROUNDIHISTORY The Town of Sugar City was awarded grant funds from the Office of Water Conservation to purchase a computer system that would allow the city to create a database of water information and billing system. This system has established a database by which the Town Clerk can provide monthly and annual summary of the amount of water used by the customers in Sugar City. Through the development of this database, Sugar City, has been able to detect domestic water leaks on each meter. The population for Sugar City is 261 and is currently supplied by 5 wells, four of which are adjudicated. The average rainfall is 10 inches. The city also owns irrigation water that is set aside in case augmentation is needed. At their peak, the wells are utilized at 65%. The City fmished metering the entire community in the Spring of 1995. The City has 168 meters. This includes residential, Town Hall, Parks, Town home, one dairy farm, and agricultural use (ranchers' stock tanks). The City charges a flat rate of $14 for the first 5,000 gallons with $1 per thousand gallons thereafter. The average water use in the winter months (December, January, and February) is 1.54 million gallons. The customers are, to a large part older persons who live on a fixed income and are savings conscious. . The previous billing system did not allow the City to analyze daily water usage, and the percent differential average of monthly bills. The goal of the City was to achieve the above information on a database system that would also identify water losses in the system. There has been no previous annual water use data compiled by the City. PHASE I The Town of Sugar City purchased a computer system as specified in the grant application. The City had several initial hardware and software problems after purchasing the equipment. The City hired a consultant to evaluate their computer problems. The consultant identified that the City had been sold a used computer and illegal software. Other problems identified were: 1. The motherboard was missing 4 cache chips. 2. The hard disk drive was only 130mb. 3. The video card was of poor quality. 4. The case was used. 5. The tape drive and monitor were made in 1991. Mter fixing the problems associated with the computer system, the City has been able to detect variation from average monthly consumption and alert the clerk of a possible problem, i.e. leaks. The city was able to contact customers of excessive usage and problems of leaking toilets and . faucets have been discovered and repaired.