HALLS -- At its regular December meeting, the city board here approved the purchase of equipment that will allow Public Works Department workers to read rural gas meters from their trucks.

At the meeting, the Halls Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved an expenditure of $27,000 for over 500 meters and the software and training needed to implement the radio-transmitting program.

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"We will have to add a small line item, but the majority of that money is budgeted," said Halls Mayor Trent McManus.

"The technology has been out for a while," said Public Works Director Alan Cherry. "We (recently) bought field computers and the new ones have the capability to 'radio read.'"

Cherry said that there are many benefits to adding the radio transmitting meters to rural residential customers.

"Doing it the old way, there are two chances for errors," said Cherry, who said that mistakes can be made reading the meter and again when entering the information by hand. "With this, there is no manual entry. That is two less chances of error."

Another reason to choose the rural route include safety issues for public works employees who read gas meters on property with dogs.

"In the city, the dogs are mostly chained or in a pen, but many times, in the country, the dogs are left loose to protect the house," said Cherry. "And that's what they are doing."

The purchase will change over almost all of the meters for rural customers served by the Halls Gas Department.

"There are a little over 500 in the first phase. We have 570 rural customers, but the budget would only allow for a little over 500 meters," said Cherry. "It won't take very long to get a return on our investment. It won't take long at all. First of all, time is money and gas is a great expense in meter reading."

Cherry said homes in rural areas are located much farther apart and a larger distance from the road. The new system will save on gas for trucks running the route and the time needed to read the meters.

"In the city, it's not so much of a problem because everything is much more compact," said Cherry. "We're just trying to save time and save money."

Cherry said Halls will begin a new contract that drops gas prices at the well from last year's price of $9.60 to $7.50. With the new price, residents should see some savings on their gas bills next month.

"We add just about a dollar to that to get it transferred and pay for the pipeline, etc.," said Cherry. "We also had to increase our margin from 33 cents to 44 cents because the gas department has lost money for the past three to four years. But on the next month's reading, our gas costs should go down."

Cherry said typical savings for a typical year should save Halls residents $110 per year on their gas bills.

"We can't control usage," said Cherry. "If it gets bitterly cold, they will have to use more gas and the savings won't be as much."