Manassas Council Approves Utility System Demo Project

The Manassas City Council on Monday night approved a pilot project that will test the deployment of high-tech water and electric meters that are supposed to do a better of job of tracking utility usage.

The Advanced Metering Infrastructure Pilot project will cost the city about $441,000. The project will provide new meters as well as a fixed network communications system that will allow the city to more closely monitor demand. Customers will also be able to check their electric usage under the new system, according to city staff.

The pilot project is part of a larger effort on behalf of the city to replace its current battery of utility meters, most of which are approaching 30 years old. As water meters age, they lose accuracy and under-register water usage. Replacement of meters would provide more accurate billing of water usage, officials said.

In other business, the city conducted a public hearing on a proposal for a new chapel at the Seton Junior-Senior High School, an accredited private Catholic school at Maple Street and Quarry Road. The new chapel, which would replace an existing smaller one on the 1.1-acre lot, would be built north of the school building. The school enrolls about 350 students. 

The chapel’s octagonal-shaped footprint measures 65-feet-by-43-feet and would have a height of 32 feet to the top of the roof and 48 feet to the top of the steeple.  The chapel would have 177 seats, an altar, a confessional, toilet rooms and storage. City staff recommended approval of the project after the school agreed to make lighting improvements, add landscaping and rebuild the curb along the street in front of the school.

The council took no action on the project, setting it for consideration at the Jan. 14 meeting, said Patty Prince, the city’s communications coordinator.