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Water authority upgrades continue

3 min read

JEFFERSON – A contractor for Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority is expected to begin work next week on the authority’s new meter system, a system that will do away with the authority’s need for meter readers.

The system, funded with a loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure and Investment Authority, will automatically send customers’ meter information by radio directly to the authority’s office.

Authority engineer Randy Krause told the authority board Thursday that the company, L.B. Water, will begin installing antennas Monday.

The company will probably bring the new system on line in stages as it installs antennas throughout the authority’s service area, Krause said later.

The authority awarded a $4.5 million contract to L.B. Water earlier this year. The cost included the purchase of about 13,000 new meters, radio equipment and antennas and the installation of the antennas.

Authority employees are installing the new meters and already have installed about 1,200 of them, Krause said. The company has until the end of 2013 to complete the system.

The system is expected to pay for itself in about eight years. The new meters will be more accurate than the current mechanical meters, which are, on average, about 19 years old.

The system also will be able to alert the authority of any unusual instances of water use that could help prevent water damage inside a home in the event of a break.

In other business, authority solicitor David Pollock told the board he expects to have papers ready next month to create a new authority to operate a park at the authority’s Wisecarver Reservoir property.

The park authority will be formed by the authority, county and Franklin Township to manage the park and raise money for the park’s development.

The park authority will be separate from the water authority and will not be funded by the authority’s ratepayers or the county’s and township’s taxpayers.

Pollock said the Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation also is interested in participating in the park’s development.

The board approved a motion to investigate whether it is possible to us a turbine on a water line to create electricity for the authority’s proposed new office building.

The authority has been debating constructing the new building for several months. It has developed plans to build a 9,900 square foot building on property on Route 88 near Dry Tavern, donated by Consol Energy. The board voted last month to proceed with the building, which has been estimated to cost $3 million.

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