Oxford Village’s program to make it easier for its staff to read water meters will continue to grow this year.

Last week, council voted 4-0 to approve the $19,890 purchase of 153 radio transceivers that collect and transmit water meter readings. Each unit costs $130 and they are being purchased from Etna Supply in Grand Rapids.

These units transmit water usage data via radio frequency, which allows village employees to obtain meter readings from their vehicles, up to a quarter-mile away, rather than having to walk up to each home or business and use a handheld unit to make physical contact with remote readers currently located on the exteriors of structures.

The transceivers simply snap on over the existing readers.

These 153 units will be placed on village homes in the area east of N. Glaspie St. and on condominiums along Depot St., Burdick Woods Court, Conda Lane and Ashley Way.

Don Brantley, superintendent of the village Department of Public Works, said they’re designed to “streamline our walking routes.”

Village employees will be able to read meters quicker because they’ll be able to collect the data right from their vehicles, instead of having to walk up and down streets, open gates, go through backyards and climb up on decks to access meter readers.

Last year, the village purchased and installed 590 of these radio transceivers.

More than 400 were installed in Oxford Lakes, so now every home in the subdivision has one. All of the businesses within the downtown area also have one as well as other commercial and industrial properties.

The goal is to put a radio transceiver on all of the village’s 1,341 meters. The addition of another 153 units means the municipality is “just a little over halfway” there, Brantley said.

Brantley ordered them on Oct. 12 and expects delivery to take two to three weeks.

Once they’re here, he said installing them should take “no more than a week” based on how quickly the process went last year.

“We were putting 40 to 50 of these on a day,” Brantley said.