WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee voted on Wednesday to positively recommend to the City Council two important initiatives for the Department of Public Works and the city. 
The committee voted 3-0 to recommend the $4 million bond order for the replacement of water meters. “The Finance Committee is extremely pleased with the work the Water Department did. We have an opportunity to save $400,000 to $600,000 per year with this bond,” said Ward 5 Councilor and committee chair Robert A. Paul, Sr. The other members of the committee are At-large Councilors Matthew T. VanHeynigan and David Flaherty.
The $4 million bond is for the purchase of new iPERL meters, a Flexnet network to provide automated meter information (AMI), installation, contingencies and temporary employees.
Department of Public Works Superintendent David Billips said his department has looked into this over the past eight years. The current meters being used are twenty years old, and require being read by meter readers. The new meters along with the software will transmit information and show real-time usage, and enable the department to determine where 300 million gallons of unaccounted-for water is going.
Billips said bids are out for the meters and the network, but not for the installation. Westfield is working with Southwick, which is also installing new water meters, on the network aspect.
“We did this bid together so we can share economy of scale,” Billips said, adding that the two towns are working well together.
When asked about a thread on Facebook’s We Love Westfield Community Forum that had residents commenting about higher water bills. Billips said that the bills are higher because it’s been an unusually hot and dry summer. He said residents have to compare this summer’s bills to past summer’s bills, not to other seasons.
“A meter is like an odometer, it reads what goes through,” said DPW assistant director Francis Cain. He said when a meter isn’t working properly it under reads, it never over reads.
Billips said with the new meters, they will be able to tell exactly how much water is used, and at what time of day.
The second DPW project that received a positive recommendation Wednesday from the Finance Committee was a transfer of $75,000 from the city’s Stabilization account to hire a tree climber and to pay for needed tree work in the city.
Mayor Brian P. Sullivan, who attended the meeting, said that he asked the City Council to transfer $1.2 million in Free Cash at the end of the last fiscal year into the Stabilization fund, so that it would be available for emergencies.
“All I’m asking for is $75,000. This is the first time the Stabilization fund has been over $7 million since 2010,” Sullivan said.
Billips explained that the funds would not be used for operating expenses, but for an emergency situation in the city, which currently has only one employee that can work on trees.
“We’ve got almost 200 trees on the See-Click-Fix part of the city’s web site. Half of those maybe aren’t a danger to the public, but there’s probably 75 that if they don’t come down, they’ll fall down,” Billips said.
SeeClickFix is a feature on the city’s website that allows residents to report a concern. Many of those reports are concerning trees.
Billips said $30,000 of the money would fill an unfunded position of tree trimmer/climber, and the other $45,000 would allow the department to contract out to a tree service for dangerous trees.
