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45 <br />fiver <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission <br />John Dietz <br />Jerry Gumphrey <br />Daryl Thompson <br />FROM: David Berg <br />DATE: May 12, 2009 <br />SUBJECT: Follow-up to Rebates to Encourage Automatic Sprinkler <br />Controls <br />At last month's Utilities Commission meeting we presented a proposal to offer rebates of <br />$125 for single family residents and $250 for associations and commercial/industrial <br />properties for the installation of "SMART" irrigation controllers. Those rebates were in the <br />form of credits on the water bills after the installation of the system. Since last month's <br />meeting, we have had the opportunity to meet twice with one of the associations in the Trott <br />Brook Farms addition, along with representatives of the association. We have also met with <br />the manager of maintenance and their irrigation contractor. <br />Through these meetings we have learned that there is an additional cost to convert an <br />existing irrigation system to a "SMART" controller system. Not only does the controller <br />need to be installed and programmed, but an audit of the existing irrigation system needs to <br />be completed and any findings from the audit relative to repair or replacement need to be <br />accomplished for the system to operate at peak efficiency. This audit would look at items <br />such as the type of controller head and the amount of water that it disperses relative to the <br />range of area that it irrigates. For instance, five or six heads might irrigate 180 degrees, while <br />other heads might only irrigate 90 degrees. If the 90 degree heads are not modified to <br />restrict the flow of water, they will be over-irrigating by a factor of two every time the <br />"SMART" controller tells them the area needs more water. <br />We have worked with the irrigation representative for the Trott Brook Farms Association, <br />who is a Certified Irrigation Contractor, meaning that he has gone through the training for <br />the "SMART" irrigation systems, to determine the total cost of converting an association's <br />system. He has estimated that a large "SMART" controller capable of handling more than 9 <br />