City awards water meter contract to Keystone

On Tuesday evening, the Shelton City Council awarded a $947,571 contract to Keystone Utility Systems to install already-purchased new meter boxes, lids and transmitters to replace every water meter in the city.

With the new system, employees will no longer be physically reading the meters at the sites but collecting the numbers with transmitters.

The City of Shelton’s water customer meters are more than 20 years old and have “reached the end of their useful life,” the city states. The city is close to falling out of compliance with the state Department of Health’s regulatory requirements to ensure accurate customer billing for water use and sewage discharge.

The engineer’s estimate for the project is $1 million to $1.45 million. Nine companies made bids on the project, ranging from $947,571 to $2,430,430, with Keystone Utility Systems offering the lowest bid.

The city report states that staff intends to replace all meters sized three-quarters of an inch to 2 inches, but part of the bid schedule might be reduced to keep the project within budget.

The city report states “staff will be assigning an inspector to each crew (Keystone Utility Systems) that is brought in to do the work for the city to ensure that the work is completed in accordance with plans, specifications and current engineering principles. We are excited to get this work completed for the city, as this project has been a long time coming for the utility and much needed.”

The city has already spent about $1.9 million on materials for the project.