By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City council will consider a proposal today to move ahead with a $14 million project to replace all its water meters starting in late 2015.

The ordinance would authorize the board of control to enter into a contract for the project.

There are about 55,000 water meters in homes and businesses that receive city water, said Water Commissioner Harry L. Johnson III. That includes Youngstown, Austintown, Boardman and Liberty.

There won’t be a water-rate increase for this project as the city raised the rate by 8.75 percent annually the past five years, he said. Compared with 2009, the year before the rate increase, the water department is collecting about $2 million more annually in water fees now, he said.

The work would start slow in 2015 and rev up in 2016 through 2020, Johnson said.

The last time new water meters were installed was in 1988, and those were supposed to last 15 years, he said.

“They’re well beyond their useful life,” he said.

The meters aren’t accurate, Johnson said, and pointed to a meter test recently conducted that showed only 66 percent of the actual water use of a customer was recorded on that meter.

These meters will be more accurate, and will be able to identify unusual water use — such as if there’s a running toilet or a water leak — immediately, he said.

When the new meters are installed, there will be no need to retain water-meter readers, who travel to the meters, as that work will be done from the water department office, he said.

The seven meter readers on staff will be assigned to new jobs in the department when others retire, Johnson said. That reduction in total employees will save the city about $500,000 annually, he said.

Also today, council will consider a recommendation from the administration to accept a nonbinding fact-finder report on a three-year contract with the Youngstown Ranking Police Officers union. The union voted Tuesday in favor of the proposal.

Both the 42-member union and the administration requested raises of 1 percent in the first year, 1.5 percent the second year and 1 percent the third year — the same raises the city bargained with other employee unions.

The one difference in this deal is the union wanted the first-year raise retroactive to June 1, the first day of a new contract, while the city wanted that raise to start Jan. 1, 2015.

Jared D. Simmer of Ingomar, Pa., the fact-finder, however, recommended a 2.5 percent raise, effective Jan. 1, and then a 1 percent raise on Jan. 1, 2016.

The current annual salaries of YPRO members range from $59,414 for an entry-level detective sergeant to $82,711 for a captain after three years at that job.