Nearly a year after Siemans Industry Inc., was awarded an $8 million contract to plug the city’s water loss problem that were reaching as high as $1.5 million per day, company representatives are preparing to report progress to the Port Arthur City Council.
Siemans will make the presentation during Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall.
At the time of the Siemans contract was awarded in September 2014, the company’s Building Technology Division committed to replacing fire hydrants, large water meters, instituting a city-wide retrofit to fixed based system as well as installing automatic meter reading system upgrades.
Those projects are in progress, City Manager Brian McDougal said.
The contract was initially in response to a seven-month leak detection survey commissioned to determine who much water the city was losing from antiquated or faulty lines and hydrants. Most of the loss occurred from fire hydrants the company tested.
During the survey, the company concentrated on large lines and fire hydrants while analyzing the city’s 300 mile distribution system.
Large meters produce 1.2 percent of the total number of meters in the city, and account for 28 percent of total water revenue generated.
The 117 hydrants identified as leaking are responsible for an estimated $2 million in losses per year.
As part of Siemans scope of work, the company will replace 117 fire hydrants identified with active water leaks and develop a plan for citywide replacement.
The company is also tasked with providing Port Arthur with the latest technology by attaching a fixed base system on every meter, as well as 18,706 new Advanced Metering Infrastructure smart meters, and radios on all meters.
This technology would replace the old radio read meters, allowing the city to reassign its metering staff.
“This is really a project update, a status of where we are,” McDougal said.
In other matters Council will consider continuing a contract with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen, P.S. of Round Rock for collection of municipal court fines.
The contract will be for two years.
Council will also consider authorizing a license for construction of recreational vehicle park on a 12.665 acre tract of land in Camellia Plaza, at the Eastern Corner of Texas 73 and West Port Arthur Road in the Port Acres community.
Also to be considered is an  ordinance designating a tax abatement reinvestment zone for the downtown/Port of Port Arthur area.
E-mail: sherry.koonce@panews.com
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