HENDERSON — Town officials are looking at updating the meters of its Water District 2, so that it can be monitored by computer.

Corey G. Reid, an engineer at Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown who made the presentation to the board about the project Thursday, said the project would ease quarterly readings and help officials discover leaks more quickly, saving the town money.

Mr. Reid estimated the cost of such an upgrade would be between $160,000 and $170,000.

Though the district has struggled to set a new equivalent dwelling unit price to account for a shortfall and low reserves, the upgrades will not come from the district’s funds. Instead, the upgrade would be paid for by unused funds left over from a planned expansion that was called off last year.

The system, operated by a fixed radio antenna, could be viewed by the town’s staff, cutting down on the time they would normally travel around for readings. The system could be preset to check for certain water level usages per day, which could help staff members check for leaks.

The only change needed for the meters would be the installation of new covers to make them readable.

Mr. Reid said the system would be similar to one placed in Sackets Harbor.

Lonnie L. Reinhardt, village of Sackets Harbor Department of Public Works supervisor, spoke positively about the system, installed last fall.

“We’ve had really good luck with it so far,” Mr. Reinhardt said.

He said he and other staffers check water usage levels daily, and have set it so any usage of 500 gallons or more in a 24-hour period is flagged.

The system has been used in detecting things as large as a pipe break to as small as a leaking toilet.

“We’ve had several different things called up since we put this in,” Mr. Reinhardt said.

Before the system’s installation, leaks wouldn’t become apparent before quarterly readings came through.

“(By then) it’s too late,” Mr. Reinhardt said. “They’ve got the reading and they were going to be charged for it.”

Mr. Reid said he hoped to have a more concrete proposal prepared for Henderson’s Water District 2 in the coming week.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer