Wyevale residents can sleep safer these days knowing there’s water in their fire reserves and money in their wallets. Perkinsfield is next for that peace of mind.
A water meter installation contract was considered at a recent committee of the whole meeting, with Tiny members selecting ARC Plumbing and Heating’s proposal of approximately $99,000 for the Perkinsfield water meter installation program, along with a direct purchase approval of 210 meters from Evans Utility and Municipal Supply for roughly $85,000.
Results of the 2021 Wyevale water meter pilot project, which was implemented to explore potential water abuse on the limits of the system, were included in the public works report.
Mayor Dave Evans expressed interest about a statistic in the report which stated that based on the 2022 consumption data, when Wyevale resident water usage habits would not have changed, 52 per cent of township services would see a reduction in billing in contrast to the flat rate of previous years.
“That was kind of interesting. Half went up, half went down,” said Evans. “The bigger thing to me was the value these meters are having in terms of reducing consumption, which went down by 26 per cent.”
The report highlighted interconnecting results of the project. As a result of water usage in Wyevale dropping 26 per cent (comparing the first five months of 2023 to last year when services were on a flat fee), water capacity for firefighting in the Wyevale reservoir was maintained throughout this year. Many leaks in Wyevale were also identified.
“It certainly shows the value of having these water meters, and people are watching,” Evans added.
Public works director Tim Leitch pointed out that with the one-quarter drop in consumption, that also meant equal part reductions in related areas such as chemicals and breakdowns.
A question Coun. Steffen Walma asked, since the Wyevale project was a success, if there was anything holding back the township “to go after even greater economies of scale with a project like this,” given that “this is something we are going to be implementing at all of our water systems eventually.”
Leitch explained: “We want to make sure that we really get this right before we have a mass rollout.”
“We’ve had extremely positive results from Wyevale and thank you (Mayor Evans) for pointing those out because those are impressive numbers, and that’s exactly what we thought we were going to get.”
Leitch further stated that the intent was to get Wyevale and Perkinsfield in operation while staff hammered out the remaining issues regarding software, with a focus on establishing consistent billing rates.
Once the full-time areas of town were taken care of, then seasonal areas would be second on the list due to a shorter five-month water usage period and the expensive cost to run those smaller systems.
When pressed on the issue, Leitch added there weren’t enough public works staff to supply the needed demand if township-wide water meter installations were chosen as an option.
The response satisfied Evans.
“I’d rather have our staffing levels and our expenditures on a steady, hopefully increasing flatline,” said Evans, “rather than turn it on, turn it off, turn it on, turn it off… and build competency that way.”
The committee of the whole voted to approve the option for authorizing the request for proposal and purchase of meters, with the matter to be formally approved by council at the next regular meeting.
The award of Perkinsfield water meter installation contract report can be viewed within the agenda page located on the Tiny Township website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny Township’s YouTube channel.
