Niles prepares to begin remote meter readings

By Jordan Cohen

The wireless network contains more than 100 radios and four hubs that cover the entire city.

NILES — The city has completed its initial phase of a wireless network that will provide remote water- and sewer-meter readings, data communications from safety-force vehicles and video surveillance of buildings.

The system’s remote capabilities mean that monthly visits to each home and business by meter readers will eventually become a thing of the past.

“We expect wireless meter readings to begin within six months, and that will eliminate on-site visits,” said Tom Telego, Niles business manager. “The network will be more accurate in that we will have time-of-use billing, which means there won’t be any need for estimates.”

Telego said the wireless system, because of its accuracy and specificity, will reduce theft and loss, but he was unable to provide any dollar amounts.

“We can only tell once we have this system running, but we’ll recover more [money] based on the efficiency of the meters,” Telego said.

The city began implementing the $2 million project in late 2007 and has already launched a number of applications, among them wireless communications among city buildings, video surveillance of city property that can be viewed at multiple locations through secure Internet activity, video access with the Trumbull County courts and a free Internet site at the wellness center.

Telego said the city initiated a wireless pilot project at Eastwood Mall during a three-month period to test the accuracy of meter reading and monitoring. The test was successful, and the city is preparing to submit requests for proposals to replace electric meters throughout the city that the business manager described as “aging.”

“That will be a separate cost and might be near $1 million, but that will depend on the responses to our [requests for proposals],” Telego said.

In addition, police officers will be able to use laptop computers while in the cruisers.

The city also has moved to protect its data and all other municipal operations in the event of an emergency.

Telego said an off-site data center has been created that will allow Niles city offices to move and function elsewhere with just an Internet link.

The city is considering making the data center available to other municipalities that cannot afford their own off-site center but might consider a partnership with Niles.

Niles’ wireless network contains more than 100 radios and four hubs that cover the entire city.

Telego said the network “leads the state and some areas of the country in wireless technology.”