The village of Wellington is rolling out a citywide wireless network that will increase the efficiency of its city services. The initial service will automate the city's water meter reading. Currently an employee must drive by a water meter and it sends a signal to an electronic device inside the driver's car. But with the new wireless network the meters will be read from a centralized location on a daily basis versus a monthly basis as they are now.

Village officials say the new system will save the village time, money and free up employees' time to perform other duties. By reading the meters on a daily basis the system will have the ability to flag suspected water leaks and officials can then contact homeowners.

"We're always trying to find ways to be progressive, do the best with people's taxes and make life easier for the people in the village," said Tom Amburgey, the village's chief information officer. He said other municipalities in the area may have some Wi-Fi capabilities but "we're really the first to go this far in this area."

Every 10 years the water meters must be changed out anyway and it was during the water meter review process that they found out about this new system. The total cost of the project is $4.3 million.

"With just the money we're saving we should pay for the entire system in nine years, and that's a very conservative estimate," Amburgey said.

The Wi-Fi network was scheduled to be installed by this month and the all of the water meters will be changed out by May. Besides the ability to read the water meters over the network the village will have wireless control over its canal and sewer lift stations. Until now the canals and lift stations had to be independently monitored, but with the network the village can monitor and control all of them from one central location. This will be especially useful during heavy storms or hurricanes when the canals' water levels can be managed over the network versus sending someone out to monitor and manage the water levels. Additionally the village's field workers, such as code enforcement officers, will have access to the network while they are out in the field, which will make them more efficient.

"The biggest thing I'm looking forward to is the ability to optimize that whole system as far as labor and accuracy, minimize the reads and control the stations," said Utilities Director Ed Wasielewski.

Jason Parsley can be reached at jeparsley@tribune.com

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