SILVERHILL — The Silverhill Town Council voted at its Monday, Nov. 1 meeting to approve the purchase of radio-controlled water meters from the city of Robertsdale.
Council members met with Allen Killen with Civil Southeast and decided to proceed with a plan to purchase the meters from Robertsdale rather than pursue purchasing new meters, Silverhill Mayor Jared Lyles said.
The city of Robertsdale has recently replaced its radio-controlled meters with a digital system and voted at its Sept. 7 council meeting to surplus the meters. The city offered to sell the meters to the town of Silverhill at a cost of $10,000.
At its Sept. 20 meeting, officials said the town has been replacing meters as needed and have already replaced about 200 of the town’s 1,050 meters, leaving the town needing to replace about 850 meters.
The city of Robertsdale voted to surplus about 18,000 meters. Silverhill Superintendent of Utilities Scottie Smith stated in September that he requested that any used meters that come from Robertsdale be no more than two years old, which would still leave the town enough meters to replace existing meters with enough left over for replacements.
With the purchase of meters from Robertsdale, the total cost to install the meters is estimated at $130,000, Lyles said. The total cost to purchase new meters would have run the town about $444,000.
The town plans to use Rescue Plan Act money to complete the project. Lyles said he expects the project to be completed sometime within the next year.
“With supply shortages, we just don’t know for sure right now how long it’s going to take to get all the necessary equipment,” Lyles said. “Our hope is to have the project completed by next summer, or at least by this time next year.”
Lyles said in September that the town has received approximately $136,000 in Rescue Plan Act money and is set to receive another $136,000 by the summer of 2022.
In other business Nov. 1, the council:
