Panora City Council is considering moving away from an outdated meter reading system.

The current meter reading system is manual and it takes multiple employees to walk the city to read the meters and can be difficult in dangerous weather conditions. The city is looking to change the system to a remote reading system which Mayor Patrick Parker describes.

“Little over 1,300 meters that get read and have to be manually entered in, where with this new technology that would automatically load up to our system.”

The new system would allow the city to go back 40 days on an hourly basis to check on a specific homeowner’s utility usage. The Council feels like now they are in a better position to get a new meter reading system without having to raise utility rates since the recent funding from the American Rescue Plan. The Council will continue to review companies that can work with their current software system at their next meeting on September 6.