Isaiah Meade, maintenance technician one for Talent Public Works, checks a water meter on Willow Springs Drive in Talent on Monday.

Talent City Council has given approval for the city manager to negotiate a contract for an advanced water meter system costing up to $448,499. The current radio-signal meter system is failing, requiring hundreds of meters to be read manually each month.

Of two proposals received, Zenner USA submitted the less expensive one. A five-member evaluation team recommended the Zenner proposal over H.D. Fowler Company’s $909,474 proposal. The cost does not include system installation, estimated at $200,000.

A total of $650,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds received during the coronavirus pandemic has been budgeted for the project. Before the meter issue appeared, the money had been set aside for improvements and upgrades at the city’s skate park and in Chuck Roberts Park.

“It’s been before the council a number of times,” City Manager Gary Milliman said in an interview last Thursday. Councilors had voiced support for use of the ARPA funds for the project and unanimously approved the negotiations.

Talent has 2,200 water meter hookups. Most meters are past their 15-year useful life. The radio-signal equipment was installed in 2015, and the technology is no longer being serviced.

About 300 to 500 meters per month do not send signals that can be picked up by city employees driving by with a handheld device. With no signals, crews must get out to manually read meters. This can prolong a one-day task up to three days.

Zenner has proposed two arrangements at the same price.

One involves radio meters that can be read by public works personnel driving around the city. Under the second proposal, a fully remote system would give real-time remote readings that could be read by the city office for billing.

There are several customer-related advantages to the second system, Milliman said.

“We can detect leaks and let customers know there is a problem,” he said. Also, customers closing out an account would get their final billing faster.

An option with this system allows customers to track their own usage through electronic media devices. The city will need to look at the cost of that option, Milliman said.

For the city, timely meter data will help optimize water system management, Zenner wrote in an executive summary.

“When we meet with Zenner, we will be talking with them about what recommendations they have to install the meters,” Milliman said.

An installation by Zenner is one possibility. Another is to put out a request for proposals to perform the work. The city’s public works department doesn’t have the capacity to undertake this part of the project.

Zenner also proposed an annual fee of $5,610 to provide technical support for the meters. Fowler bid $22,092 for the service.

In earlier meetings, the council received comments about using the ARPA funding for the water issues when the money was originally designated to support other projects, Milliman said. In February, skate park advocates expressed displeasure with the change.

In the 2023-24 budget, adopted by City Council on June 21, capital funds totaling $440,000 were allocated for the skate park, while $385,000 were allocated for the relocation of tennis and pickleball courts in Chuck Roberts Park.

A grant application to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to help fund work at the skate park was submitted in April. The application would fund up to 60% of a skate park project. The awards will be announced in September.

“We will know better once we get past the discussion with Zenner about the project over the next couple weeks,” Milliman said. “There may be some funding remaining in the ARPA account that we could direct to those projects as well. We are hoping to do that.”

Once a contract is negotiated, it will require final approval from the council.

In other council business:

• Finance Director Tessa DeLine gave a report on conditions in the 1899 Town Hall building. The building suffered smoke and other damage from an April 17 basement fire. Since then, the condition of the building has been evaluated and a number of problems uncovered.

In 2018, a proposal to perform $222,500 in restoration work was developed, but it was not pursued. The Talent Urban Renewal Agency’s budget committee has proposed $250,000 for Town Hall work in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The agency’s board of directors would need to approve the expenditure.

• Announcement of Gaoying Zhang Vigoa’s appointment as the city engineer and public works administrator was made. She formerly worked for the city of Roseburg. She will be designing infrastructure projects for the city and handling administrative duties for public works.

For several decades the city has contracted for engineering services, most recently through RH2 Engineering of Medford. Having an in-house engineer should result in financial savings for the city, Milliman said.