City of Commerce

PROJECT PURPOSE

With aging infrastructure deteriorating on a daily basis, the City of Commerce needs to make upgrades to our water system. We are requesting funds to replace all water meters utilized in our water distribution system. By replacing water meters, we will be able to update technology to allow for the City to monitor usage from city hall. This will reduce in person contact with customers and limit any potential exposures to our employees and citizens. Additionally, the cost savings will allow the City to reinvest those funds into other aspects of serving our citizens. Being a small city, every dollar counts. Any additional funds to be applied will help the community as a whole.

EVIDENCE

Currently, meters are read by physically looking at each individual meter in the city. This normally takes 1 to 2 employees approximately 6 to 7 business days per month to complete. Through calculation of wages and benefits, we have determined an automated system of collecting the billing information will be beneficiary to the city. This will allow those employees to remain doing other more pertinent tasks within the city. Additionally, the automation of data will remove any human input error while collecting the usage data.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

30% of the citizens in our city live below the poverty level. Approximately 10% of our population is of Hispanic descent. We have multiple Native American tribal members living within our city limits. We lost several members of our community to the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects of the illness can still be seen today. This program will allow for employees to not have face-to-face contact with members of the community. This will reduce the potential exposure for a communicable disease. With the software that comes with the meters, citizens will be able to monitor their usage and billing from their home computers and or smart phone/devices. This will reduce the amount of customers coming to City Hall for usage and billing concerns, eliminating face-to-face contact with staff.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Assessments on measuring the performance will be conducted during install on a weekly basis to determine the rate in which the meters are being placed. Once installed and brought online, all meters and their functionality will be measured and annotated through the software provided by the meter company.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma