PCWD considers litigation against former billing software vendor, broadens experiment with electronic meters

At the April meeting of PCWD’s board, Officer Manager Jennifer Hayes clarified her comment about the district’s possible interest in initiating litigation against a software vendor.

Hayes explained that PCWD had used UbMax for many years for their billing and notification software. When UbMax was absorbed by GWorks, PCWD accepted the successor company’s bid to provide a new platform. However, according to Hayes, GWorks did not honor their agreement and never began transferring the district’s data to the new system.

A new vendor, Current Software, has been found, and Hayes said the company has been very responsive, even reducing the contracted onboarding fees due to the smooth transition. Customers are now paying their bills through the new portal. She continues to meet weekly with representatives of the new company, and customer requests are being integrated into the new service.

General Manager Jeremy Potter reported that production was down 20% from last March, attributed to fewer leaks from freezing. The district’s static measuring well began to rise—from recent precipitation— coming up about 5 inches to 76.13 feet.

Water loss was reported at 14%. Potter said a leak on Sylvan Way may account for several months of losses. Prescribed burns in Pine Cove and a structure fire on Franklin may also have contributed, as hydrant water is not metered,and usage must be estimated. In the case of prescribed burns, Potter said that when the Forest Service notifies the district, a meter can be placed on a hydrant to track usage, and this week, a meter was moved to Acorn Lane to prepare for another prescribed burn.

Potter also provided an update on the ongoing effort to remedy the poor transmission of the new electronic meters. The meters, purchased last year from Smart Earth Technologies (SET) and now installed on most of the district’s services, cannot reach the office with their rmachine-cellular technology. A new system, provided by Zenner, uses a “mesh” network to send the data from one meter to the next until it is sent to the office.

A no-cost trial of the new system has been successful, and rather than take out the meters used in the trial to redeploy them in other dead spots, Zenner is sending more units to ensure that the system will work for even the most remote and sheltered locations. Fenix, the successor to SET is also sending their own new units to be tested.

The board also passed a resolution to continue standby fees at $30 per acre or portion thereof—an annual routine—and scheduled a public hearing to be included in their June 11 meeting. The next regular meeting is set for May 14.

This story has been edited to correct two errors. The earlier version erred in stating that “usage” was down 8% from last year instead of production being lower by 20%. The story also confused Zenner and Fenix, and did not account for the fact that both companies are sending meters for trials.