Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230296
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Town Engineer John Hawley estimated the cost at $50,000 during a joint session Tuesday of council's Finance and Utility Committees.
Such devices have been used by contractors hired by the town for pinpoint corrosion problems in utility lines. Because that is expensive and it appears the town will continue to need such monitoring, town officials considered the feasibility of buying their own video device.
The wheeled device actually enters the lines and sends back images of what it sees as it moves through them.
If the device becomes wedged in a line, Hawley said, the only way to recover it is to ``dig it out. Sooner or later, it's going to happen.'' He also said it would be necessary to hire another town public works employee to use the device to its fullest extent.
Pulaski had approached officials of Pulaski County and the town of Dublin about sharing the purchase cost, but neither locality seemed interested, Hawley said. They may be interested in paying the Pulaski Public Works Department to use it to inspect their lines, however.
The two committees also discussed one of the recommendations of Ernst & Young, a consultant hired to make a study of the town's water system, on billing large-volume users.
The recommendation is to give one bill to industrial customers with operations at a single site, like Magnox Inc. and Jefferson Mills, but separate billings to one like Renfro Corp. which has operations in three separated parts of town. That would mean Renfro would be less able to take advantage of high-volume discounts.
The consultant recommends against consolidated billing to a landlord with a large number of tenants.
``I couldn't go along with this,'' said Councilman Andy Graham. ``It's all the way or not at all.''
Graham wanted consolidated billing even when the facilities are separated.
Councilman Don Crispin said that only Magnox would benefit from the top tier for high-volume discounts, because Jefferson Mills has dropped its water usage below that tier. He said it is unfair for one company to use so much town water with such a large discount.
Crispin is against the present billing system with seven tiers, each lowering the cost a little more as usage goes up. Ernest & Young has recommended dropping to three billing tiers.
by CNB