By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
RED BANK — A contract for water meter replacements was awarded without much fanfare despite initial opposition from residents and council members at prior meetings.
The Borough Council awarded a contract to National Metering Services Inc. for the replacement of about 4,000 water meters in the borough at the March 9 Borough Council meeting.
The contract, worth $1,586,832, was unanimously approved by the Borough Council at the March 9 meeting.
Lenegan Plumbing and Heating LLC was the lowest bidder at $1,435,610, but was rejected due to not meeting bid specifications.
According to Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels, the move to replace the borough’s water meters is necessary because almost half the meters in Red Bank are over 25 years old and are either not functioning or giving inaccurate readings.
The inaccurate readings, according to Sickels, cause the borough to estimate water usage based on the last recorded flow, which he said could be as long as four or five years ago.
According to Sickels, the borough’s water service has 17 percent unaccounted for water flow, above the 15 percent the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection allows.
At the Feb. 10 Borough Council meeting, the council voted to allocate $1.9 million for the purchase of the new meters as well as an additional $1.8 million for the construction of an emergency backup well on Chestnut Street along with other system improvements.
Newly elected Republican Councilmen Mark Taylor and Michael Whelan at the Feb. 10 meeting questioned why this was falling in their laps now, having been a major issue in the borough for over a year.
Linda Schwabenbauer, another Republican on council, remarked that it seemed as though the issues of the water meters were purposefully kicked down the road by the last council.
“I am enraged that [Taylor and Whelan] are being asked to vote on these issues now when this has been hanging out here for a year and this has not been talked about. This was deliberately dumped in their laps, and now they have to make a decision on this, and it is a very unpopular decision,” she said at the meeting last month.