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•Case Study: East Orange, NJ

By Neptune Technology Group Inc.

On July 1, 2009, the East Orange Water Commission celebrated its 100th anniversary. Over the course of the last century, this quasi-independent utility has used a gravity-fed system to deliver water over two mountains from a system of artesian wells along the Passaic Aquifer. The Commission generates its own revenue and serves the 75,000 residents and 10,600 accounts of the City of East Orange, New Jersey – an area of four square miles – along with the 17,000 residents and 5,000 accounts in the Township of South Orange Village. According to Executive Director Harry Mansmann of the Commission, 600 commercial and high-rise apartment accounts make up 60 percent of the city's water consumption: "East Orange is an apartment town."

When Mansmann joined the Commission in 2003, he faced a mounting crisis in its meter reading and billing. Nearly 50 percent of monthly bills were estimated under the system he inherited. Collections hovered near 70 percent. "It was a dire situation," he said. "With a $22M budget, we believed we were leaving up to $8 million ‘on the street.'" His crew fielded between 200 and 300 calls a day from customers regarding faulty and missed reads, thus adding to the dilemma.

With six to seven staff members utilizing 12-15 working days each month to collect manual reads using handheld devices, it was obvious to Mansmann that a major overhaul was needed to reduce overhead and boost efficiency.

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•Case Study: East Orange, NJ