The Washington City Council once again heard a proposal on automatic meters for city utilities.

The presentation at Monday’s meeting, by Sensus Metering Systems, was along the lines of what the council heard in the fall of 2008 and was an issue of contention earlier this year.

In the latest presentation, the city would change to automatic meters gradually and not all at once.

“(Automatic meters) gives you the ability to manage your utilities from an efficiency standpoint,” Jeff Cunningham with Sensus said.

During the presentation, Cunningham said a tower would be placed on the water tower east of the city near Bedford Road. The meters would send a radio signal to the tower on usage, which would be sent to the utility office.

The automated readers would eventually phase out manual meter readers in the future, depending on how many automated readers were installed.

Some communities, like Loogootee and Bicknell, use meters that send out a radio signal but the signal is collected by a reader on a handheld device.

Cunningham said the use of automated readers would save the city money on readers and some service calls.

“We’re not sending out meter readers anymore so that is a huge savings,” Cunningham said.

Mayor Larry Haag said if the program goes through, meter readers would not lose their jobs but would be sent to other positions in the city utility.

“They are much more valuable to us in a return to maintenance,” Haag said. “We have needs at the water and electric department.”

Although a dollar figure was not mentioned, Haag said the proposal would be “hundreds of thousands” less than previous costs. In March, the city voted down a utility rate increase because of a $1.1 million plan to install automated meters.

“We are still working at those issues,” Haag said. “We won’t be paying for (all) of it up front.”

The rate increase was approved earlier this year by the council after the automated meter plan was taken out of the increase.

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