The Elyria Police Department and the Elyria Kiwanis will
sponsor the 55th annual Safety Town the weeks of June 17th,
June 24th, July 8th and July 15th. Registration is FREE and you get obtain a
registration card at the school your child will attend in the fall, or at the
Elyria Police Department. The
program runs Monday through Thursday, 9:00am – 11:30am, with a special
graduation ceremony on Friday morning starting at 9:00am, complete with guest
speakers.
This is a wonderful one-week course that focuses on
teaching our children safe practices both at school and at home. They learn when, where and how to cross the
street, bike and pedestrian safety, school bus safety, fire safety, seat belt
safety, 911 emergency calls, stranger
danger and what to do if they find a gun.
It’s also a great way to encourage children to be comfortable around
police officers, fire fighters. Thank
you Elyria Police Department and Kiwanis!
Now about the water meters…
Gloria:
How can the City be losing so much water and what are you going to do about
it?
Thanks for the question, Gloria. Yes, this was one of the areas that was a
surprise to me in the audit. I agree
with the audit that the City should do a better job measuring water loss
through our metering system, thus taking in additional revenue. With 1994 systems currently in place, the
City’s water “loss” is above the national benchmark. The audit points out that
our pumping percentage is approximately 25.8% above our billings. The national
average for water “loss” is approximately 16% - thus we could reduce our “loss”
percentage significantly with more accurate meter system in place. With a
renewed emphasis on water quality and water conservation Elyria’s water
facilities and needs must be more closely aligned.
With this realization in mind, in early 2013 the City
began to switch out some of the older industrial meters. In one example, a
local industry with an older meter went from estimated monthly bills of around
$ 5,000, to accurate readings that yielded billings of over $ 20,000 per month.
In addition to getting more accurate readings, a new meter system will allow
Elyria to use newer, more reliable technology. Current radio frequency systems
gather readings remotely reducing man hours and eliminating weather/service
delays.
Moreover, conversion to the new meter systems can be
accomplished with limited out-of-pocket expenses; the meter companies set up
systems to allow for “pay backs” from the newly measured water/sewer and return
on investment on most of these conversions is under 5 years. The accuracy of
meters will also generate revenue contributing to our enterprise funds for
sewer and storm sewers improvements. Much of Elyria’s inflow problems stem from
our old infrastructure and combination sewers, as noted in the audit. Because Elyria’s old systems cause the
unnecessary treatment of storm water, improvements made possible through
revenue generated from this source will reduce the cost of water treatment.
The costs to make the infrastructure improvements to both
the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the storm water systems are extremely high:
in excess of $80 million. The conversion to a new, more accurate, metering
system will produce some needed funding for these projects. With a renewed focus
on eliminating storm water infiltration, the City Engineering is working on
several projects that will “line” the interior of infrastructure to help
eliminate these issues. In early 2012,
Elyria began the process of establishing a storm water utility and this work
continues; protocols are being drafted and will be rolled out to the public in
early 2014. This storm water utility program will allow for revenues to fund
storm water projects and will help defer costs out of the sewer debt funds. This will be a long process, but we are
committed to making the improvements.