T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Bethesda Village Administrator Dirk Davis, right, advises council Monday to enter into contract with National Road Utility Supply to upgrade water meters. The payment process will be determined.

BETHESDA — The village is looking at a meter upgrade project this year, and council must decide how to foot the bill, and if a surcharge will be necessary.

On Monday, Village Administrator Dirk Davis reminded council the village must contract with National Road Utility Supply, who installed the meters.

“It’s the new meter-reading system that goes to each individual meter head. It’s an upgrade (National Road) had us do,” he said. Davis said the system was installed in 2014 and was to have lasted 10 years.

“They upgraded it this year. It’s just something we have to switch to. … We had to follow suit because we had too much invested in the prior system.”

Davis said the village had until Jan. 31 to vote on accepting the contract and to decide how to pay for the upgrades. Finance Director Rick Burkhead said the cost would increase beyond the quoted price otherwise. Davis said council should address the matter now.

“The village of Belmont already has theirs up and running and they’re working out the bugs,” Davis said. He said the process takes five to six months. “This will put us close to June. We get into June, the old system will be shut down.

Council will discuss the best method of paying for the upgrade during the next special council meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, when council will establish the 2020 budget.

Options include Bethesda paying the entire $15,475 cost out-of-pocket using oil and gas royalties, placing an equal surcharge on all the roughly 500 customers, or increasing water rates for heavy users.

Council members suggested a surcharge of about $2.50 monthly, added to the current surcharge of $24.

“We do need to take care of this,” Councilman Jay Van Horn said. “I would prefer to do the surcharge. I know we’re probably going to pay for this up-front. It’ll probably take a year to get our money back at surcharge level.”

He said the gas and oil money could be used as matching funds for other projects around the village. Councilwoman Jordan Castello suggested paying half out-of-pocket and placing a reduced surcharge.

In answer to a question from outgoing mayor Martin Lucas, Burkhead said the surcharge would be removed after payment is made.

One resident said it was unfair that same surcharge be applied to a family of two as a family of six, when the larger family more water and asked if the charge could be broken down by usage.

Burkhead said this would require a motion to alter water rates. He also said oil and gas royalties were limited and could be used instead to supplement the police department fund to provide more coverage.

Council voted unanimously to sign the contract.

Afterward, outgoing Belmont Mayor Stan Sobel said Belmont’s upgrades were completed last summer for a comparable price.

“Our upgrades were to the programming system and also the data collecting system,” he said. “It actually is able to keep better track of usage for any individual, tracks if there’s a potential leak in the system, and in our case we had to upgrade because our old unit was out of date.”

In other matters, council also motioned to increase hourly rates of emergency personnel in the fire department by $1. Hourly wages will be $14 for paramedics, $12 for EMTAs, and $11 for EMTs. All are part-time. Fire department personnel will also receive overtime after 112 hours in a pay period.

“They’re having issues with keeping people on staff,” Burkhead said.

Council also motioned to transfer $3,000 from the general fund to the police fund for wages.

“We’re out of money until March,” Burkhead said.

Busack also reported finding and working with the Cleveland-based owner of a dilapidated structure on 209 Oak St.

“I told him basically we’re condemning the home because the ceiling’s collapsed. The chimney’s fallen. Basically it’s a disaster,” he said.

He hopes the owner will deed the house to the village, so Bethesda could tear it down and utilize the lot or let someone purchase it.

Davis reported the downtown Christmas lights will be taken down this week. He said Bethesda is in need of more Christmas lights, at a cost of about $15,000 or more. He suggested breaking up the project and paying $5,000 during a three-year period.

“They’re in very bad shape,” Davis said.