5. Award Bid - Single Jet Potable Water MetersCity of Kalispell Public Works Department
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REPORT TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: James C. Hansz, P.E., Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: Award Bid — Single Jet Water Meters
MEETING DATE: February 22, 2005
BACKGROUND: The current budget includes an appropriation of $40,000.00 for new water meters and
$360,000.00 for the final phase of the Residential Water Meter Change -out Project. Two bids to supply
1,600 meters were received by the due date of 14 February 2005: from AMCO of Ocala, Florida, and
Metron-Farrier of Boulder, Colorado. The bids were carefully reviewed for compliance with
specifications. The bid of Metron-Farnier met all specifications without exceptions. Upon review, the bid
by AMCO was rejected as non -responsive for the following reasons:
• AMCO proposed to supply positive displacement meters in lieu of the specified single jet
meters.
• AMCO proposed a meter guarantee of 12 months rather than the specified five years.
• AMCO proposed meters that failed to meet any of the accuracy requirements set forth in
the specifications.
• AMCO proposed a remote reading system that is incompatible with the City's existing
system.
Staff recommends award of the bid to Metron-.Farnier based on their bid of $359,801.00.
ACTION REQUESTED: AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 22, MOTION TO
AWARD THE BID FOR SINGLE -JET WATER METERS TO METRON-FARNIER OF BOULDER,
COLORADO.
FISCAL EFFECTS: Expenditure of funds totaling $359,801.00 for 1,600 meters, an amount that is
$40,199.00 less than is budgeted in FY 2004/2005.
ALTERNATIVES: As suggested by the City Council
sz, P.E. �ames Patric
of Public Works f CC Enneer Cty Manager
Attachment: Bid
February 22, 2005 Award Bid Single Jet Meters.doc
MEMORANDUM
To: Jim Hansc, Public Works Director
From: Terri Loudermilk, Administrative Coordinator &
Andrew Sorensen, Associate Civil Engineer
Date: February 1.6, 2005
Re: City of Kalispell Single Jet Water Meter Bid Analysis
The fiscal year 2004/2005 Water budget includes appropriations of $40,000.00 for new
water meter installations and $360,000.00 for the final Phase of the Residential Meter
Change -out Project. The specifications called for a highly accurate single jet water meter
with a remote drive -by reading system.
Two bids were received by the due date and opened February 14, 2005.
Metron-Farnier $359,801.00
AMCO $181,074.30
($287,591.80)
The AMCO bird of $181,074.30 is for meters that are guaranteed only if used indoors and
that are not subject to flooding. The adjusted bid, after including an additional $47.50 per
meter for meters suitable for pit installations, is $287,591.80.
After reviewing the bids, several discrepancies with the AMCO bid were discovered.
1) AMCO bid a C700 positive displacement meter. The water meter specifications
state that. "Displacement type meters will not be considered." This directly contradicts
the requirements of the specifications.
2) The specifications also require that the Low Flow Registration, at minimum 95%,
be accurate tol/16 gpm for a 3/4"x3/4" meter. The AMCO C700 only provides accuracy
to l/4 gpm. This is less than the specified accuracy. Additionally, the specifications
requires meters to perform at 1/10 - 31 gpin in an Accuracy Range of 98.5% to 101..5%,
for a 3/4"0/4" meter. The AMCO C700 only performs at 2-30 gpm accuracy. This fails
to meet the requirements at both the low and the high flow levels. The failure to perform
in the specifier) range also occurs for the 1 ", 1 112", and 2" meters with a greater
differential as the size increases.
3) The specifications further state that, "Meters shall be guaranteed by the
manufacturer to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of five
(5) years from the date of purchase..." The AMCO C700 meter only guarantees the
"product... to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 12
months after installation or 18 months after shipment by AMCO..."
4) The specifications also require that, "The Radio Meter Interface Unit shall have a
prorated guarantee by the manufacturer to be free from defects in materials and
workmanship for a period of ten (10) years. The Radio Meter Interface Unit
manufacturer further guarantees that if the supplied Radio Meter Interface Unit has a
failure rate of more than 2% per read cycle in the first five years of operation the
manufacturer will supply field labor to replace the failed Meter Interface Units over and
above the 2%." The AMCO guarantee for Absolute Encoder Registers for the C700
meter only "guarantees to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period
of 12 months after installation or 18 months after shipment by AMCO..." The guarantee
also fails to discuss the field labor/replacement requirement should more than 2% fail.
5) AMCO never specified which style of the C700 meter that they bid. Furthermore,
the drive -by read system proposed is not compatible with the City's current system.
AMCO's system would require the City to run two different systems or change out the
over 3,000 plus meters that are already installed in the system.
Due to the above stated reasons it is our recommendation that the AMCO bid be
deemed non -responsive and rejected, and that the bid to supply the City of Kalispell
with Single Jet Potable Water Meters he awarded to Metron-Farnier.