Baxter City Council approved a water meter upgrade partnership at its meeting Thursday night.
Highlands Residential Executive Director Dow Harris said that the upgrades would be for the W.T. Sewell homes as well as for residents off Alexander Street. Harris said that they want to upgrade the old systems to meet the city standards. Mayor John Martin said the project would be to the city’s advantage.
“Everything that they’re proposing is a complete redo,” Martin said. “Everything. All their mains. We’re going to put meters to every home there. Everything is going to be all new.”
Harris said that the switch would be made to individual meters as well. He said that individuals would be responsible for their own water bills, but would receive a utility allowance for the cost.
Harris said that the next step would be to get TDEC’s approval, and hopefully put the project out to bid as soon as it’s approved. He said that an official cost still needs to be worked on by city engineers, but that a ballpark estimate for the construction would be some $250,000. Harris said that the idea for this work came from the need to replace old equipment.
“We’ve been experiencing some substantial leaks in the water system with the Baxter developments,” Harris said. “And the infrastructure is just old and those leaks are very costly and we just need to replace them.”
Harris said that once the system is metered individually to tenants, they would need to come and apply for water to put water in their name. He said that the meter would supply water just as others in the town of Baxter are supplied water.
Harris said that when the time comes, they will notify tenants and assist them as needed through the process.
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