Grant will upgrade Savoy-Swords water metering system

Savoy-Swords Water System received $886,000 to upgrade its meter reading to an electronic transmission system. From left are water district board members Chester Wimberley, Pat Prather, DHH Project Engineer Julie Comeaux, President Dick LeDoux, retiring Vice President Herbert Belleau, board members Roger Young, Frank Darbonne, Wayne Darbonne, Merrick Aguillard, and State Representative Mickey Guillory.

Jamie Anfenson-Comeau

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By J. Anfenson-Comeau
jamieenews@bellsouth.net

A $886,000 federal stimulus loan will help make water meter reading a whole lot easier in the Savoy-Swords water district.
Savoy-Swords Water System Inc., which supplies water for the Savoy and Swords regions east of Eunice, received the money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The long-term, low-interest loan will be used to transfer to Electronic Read Meters, Savoy-Sword’s Cathy Gaspard said.
Currently, it takes three men three to four days of labor to travel around to the over 2,000 households in the region to read meters, and an additional day for the three women in the office to manually enter all the readings into the computer, Gaspard said.
“Now it’ll take one man one day to get all the meter readings,” Gaspard said.
With the Electronic Read Meters, a meter reader will be able to pick up transmitted meter readings simply by driving down the street, Gaspard said.
These readings can then be downloaded directly into the computer, she added, saving time, money and labor.
The water district has already set up 175 households on the new system during a trial run, Brian “Swamp” Soileau said.
The remaining households are expected to be converted and the system should be up and running in roughly six months, Soileau said.