Mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.

If you’re a fan of Classic Radio, as I am, you might remember a program called “The Great Gildersleeve.” This program followed the adventures of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the fictional water commissioner in the fictional town of Summerfield (state unknown).

Hal Peary voiced the Gildersleeve character, later replaced by Willard Waterman (ironic, for this character).

Gildersleeve faced unending crises in managing Summerfield’s water supply until the series ended in 1958.

For the record, Gildersleeve bears no relation to Norman Utilities Director Chris Mattingly.

Mattingly has his own set of challenges but, to my mind, is doing a great job. With apologies to Shakespeare, “Let me count the ways.”

Recall that a water utility rate increase was put before Norman voters several months ago. That rate increase was defeated.

Revenues realized from that failed request would have been used for three purposes: Remote monitoring of water meters, replacement of iron water pipes (which are subject to deterioration and leakage over time) with PVC piping and treatment of well water (per Department of Environmental Quality direction). If you think those initiatives are not being pursued, think again.

Earlier this year, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under provisions of this law, Norman was notified recently that it was to receive a $2 million grant for Advanced Water Metering Infrastructure (AMI) intended to implement the remote metering project.

AMI is described as “a system of meters, communication networks and software that wirelessly delivers water usage information and service alerts directly to the provider. ... AMI technology automatically collects consumption data from water meters and subsequently transfers data over a secure network to a central database. The collected data is used for water billing, analyzing water usage and more.”

Impact on the city: Savings (in time and money) because meter readers will no longer have to drive to various parts of the city and walk through neighborhoods checking individual meters.

Impact on consumers: Timely and accurate (no more estimated) bills and quick responses to questions on water usage.

One stipulation of the grant is that the project must be completed in full.

The $2 million does not cover the total cost of the project; additional funding sources must be identified, whether through reprioritized or reprogrammed dollars, loans, bonds, etc.

One thing is sure: Utilities are managed as “enterprise” funds, meaning that dollars cannot be used for purposes other than originally intended (it’s the law). Schedules for the AMI project are in work.

Regarding laying of PVC pipes, if you’ve driven on Flood Avenue, north of Robinson Street, you’ll have noticed a store of blue PVC pipes along the side of the road. These pipes are part of ongoing work to replace iron water pipes. This work goes on, albeit at a much slower pace than an approved water utility rate increase would have allowed.

The obvious downside is that water main breaks still will occur, with all of the inconveniences associated with those breaks.

And regarding treatment of well water, water from wells is continually monitored and evaluated. Variance from the norm will be treated on an “as needed” basis, and the city will continue to operate on a DEQ waiver.

Other good things at utilities include the installation of solar panels at the water treatment plant and ongoing construction of solar panels at the water reclamation facility. Solar arrays provide power to these installations, reducing the city’s electric bill.

And speaking of the water reclamation facility, a federally-funded project to provide potable (drinkable) water at the end of the reclamation process is complete. Officials have drank that water and lived to talk about it.

There are no immediate plans to divert that water to Lake Thunderbird, but that might happen in the future.

I believe that congratulations are in order to Mattingly and the folks at utilities.

Maybe KREF would be interested in a new program: “The Great Mattingly.” I like the sound of it.

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