NILES – The city’s water department will begin sending out letters to residents who have yet to receive one of the thousands of new waters meters the city has been storing in its swimming pool that have been waiting for years to be installed.

Water department customer service coordinator Dave Liste Jr. has been working to empty the pool of the meters the city paid $1.5 million for after entering into an agreement in October 2011 with Neptune Technologies of South Pallassee, Ala. The city bought 8,620 meters, and 7,000 were moved to the Niles city pool. A failed billing software upgrade and the time it took to get a replacement billing system in place were partially responsible for the delay.

There are about 6,600 meters left to install, according to the water department, and Liste has been taking them with him on jobs around the city, installing the new meters anytime the old meters have a problem. Liste said Tuesday in a finance committee meeting that he installed 40 meters in March. Also Tuesday, Liste asked the committee’s council members to provide funds to purchase meters of varying sizes. The meters stored in the pool are mostly residential, as the larger meters, used for commercial purposes, have almost entirely been installed, Liste said.

Council on Wednesday passed an emergency ordinance transferring $20,000 to the water department from the department’s unappropriated money fund.

Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia’s 2016 agenda was announced Wednesday, and calls for a plan to have the city’s pool open and functional in 2017, which also would assist in the removal of the meters from storage.

The water department will be sending out notices to those who have yet to receive their water meters, department head Andy Catanzarite said. A time frame for the completion of the job hasn’t been estimated. Depending on the circumstances, each installation could take as little as 15 minutes and as long as two hours, Catanzarite said.

Catanzarite said water customers will get a letter asking them to call the city and schedule a window of time to have the installation done. The city worker will need access to the house.

The new meters have an advantage, Catanzarite said. Software will alert the department if they get an unusual reading, and allow city workers to respond to a possible theft, leak or other line issue.

On Tuesday officials agreed the city would rather pay some overtime to get the job done, than to go outside the union and hire a contractor to do the work. There are four workers in the water department, which is also responsible for replacing or repairing the city’s 91 defunct fire hydrants.

The new wireless-enabled meters were purchased with the intention of eliminating on-site meter readings, while also providing easier leak detection and water consumption data information to the city’s utility department.

In addition to the meters, the city also purchased nearly $350,000 in equipment designed to read the meters, including handheld readers and a variety of wireless equipment.

rfox@tribtoday.com