It used to take one person about 20 minutes to read 20 water meters in Grayslake, but now Steve Hauer can read 500 meters in the same time span.
Hauer, Grayslake’s assistant public works superintendent, doesn’t do it by whirring through the community faster than the eye can see, a la the comic book hero The Flash.
Rather, he sits comfortably behind the wheel of a sedan, cruising the streets of Grayslake at 30 m.p.h.
Technology, which is increasingly being used in communities to ease mundane and time-consuming tasks, makes it possible.
In Hauer’s passenger seat is a laptop computer, which is hooked to a compact transmission unit in the back seat. There’s also a small antenna atop the car’s roof.
These devices send out a signal on a licensed frequency, electronically communicating with the water meters at businesses and residences, which then send back the meter readings to the laptop.
It eliminates the need to send someone to each place, and it cuts down on the number of water-use estimates.
Hauer can read the entire village’s 5,200 meters in a day.
While doing so, he also can spot potholes and broken traffic signs, or maybe even burglars.
“It’s exceeded my expectations,” Hauer said. “It allows me to plan a little bit better. . . . I don’t have these guys tied up for 10 days. I can do other maintenance activities rather than devoting a lot of time to reading water meters. It’s a heck of a lot more efficient.”
And there’s another plus to the system.
“In crummy weather, we’re not out and exposed to that all day long,” Hauer said. “It avoids the possibility of slipping on ice or dog bites.”
Grayslake spent $300,000 to buy and install the technology three years ago. Where new homes have been built, the village required developers to install the equipment.
Grayslake assistant village manager Mike Flynn said the technology is costly–but worth it.
“The decision point is, when does that cost warrant itself, when do you save enough labor to do it?” Flynn said.
Grayslake is among a growing list of municipal clients for the high-tech device’s manufacturer, Sensus Technologies Inc. of Uniontown, Pa., which sells the devices through its Carol Stream-based distributor, U.S. Filter Inc.
David B. Weigers, Sensus’ territory manager for the Northern sales region, said Aurora, Lockport, Frankfort, Orland Park and Lindenhurst are among his company’s customers.
Weigers said that although municipalities want to be more efficient and save money, they tend to be conservative about pricey new equipment.
“It’s a process, from our point of view, of educating the (municipal) utilities of what options they have. They study it quite carefully,” Weigers said. “The faster-growing communities like Grayslake have to look at something to streamline the process without growing their overhead, where they have to hire considerably more people and get more vehicles and the other things that go with having another person on the payroll.”
Other communities are jumping on the bandwagon.
Zion is in the second year of a five-year plan to install the technology for water meters, said Art Hoyt, Zion’s public works superintendent.
Lincolnshire is still at least a couple of years away from making the switch, said public works Director Frank Tripicchio.
In Beach Park, Darrall Ostrolencki, the village’s sewer and water superintendent, uses a radio transmitter, similar to an Army World War II-era walkie-talkie, to send and receive water meter signals.
Elgin water director Larry Deibert said more than half of the city’s 25,450 meters have been converted to a telephone system; the meters automatically dial a toll-free number at the water department and transmit water-usage data.
Using technology to measure water use is becoming more prevalent nationally, said Joyce Paschall, executive director of the Northbrook-based Automatic Meter Reading Association, a 10-year-old organization.
Paschall said this is especially helpful in growing suburbs, such as those in Lake County.
“It takes an extremely archaic, manual process and brings it into the future,” she said.
