Sardis, located in Burke County, Georgia, is a small, vibrant city with a rich history. Situated within the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area, Sardis is nestled in the heart of the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA). It began as a modest community known as Frog Wallow, and the construction of the Savannah & Atlanta Railway played a pivotal role in the town's development, providing a vital link between two prominent hubs.

Sardis experienced remarkable growth over several decades, largely attributed to a thriving lumber industry. However, in 1962, the Central of Georgia, the owner of the railroad, made the unfortunate decision to abandon the section of tracks connecting Waynesboro and Sylvania. This abandonment had a significant adverse impact on the local economy, and in 1964, the tracks were subsequently removed.

As of the 2020 census, Sardis boasted a population of 978 residents. The city proudly preserves its historical train station and coal tower as testaments to its past while actively upgrading the city's aging infrastructure. In 2022, the City of Sardis decided to replace 409 existing water meters with AMI Sensus meters ranging in size from 3/4” to 5”.

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Customer needs 

• Upgrade from manual reading to AMI system 
• Upgrade aging infrastructure
• Collect customer-side pipe material 

To complete the project with maximum efficiency, in 2023, the City of Sardis chose Utility Solutions of America, a utility vendor with vast experience in Georgia. Fieldman provided the Mass Meter Deployment platform, which was used as work management software to plan and assign job orders and collect meter data in the field.

Solutions 

• Sensus, iPerl and Omni series meters 
• Sensus FlexNet AMI System 
• 409 underperforming meters ranging from 3/4” – 5” 

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Field workers documented the meter exchange process by using the Fieldman app, which involved collecting meter readings, GPS locations, photos of old meters, and images of new Sensus meters after successful installation. These data were captured using smartphones and uploaded to the Fieldman portal via the app.

"Our crew utilized the Fieldman app for work orders daily and was pleased with its easy-to-use interface. We were able to complete 20 installations a day, which wouldn't have been possible without the right tool," explained Garry Clair, president at Utility Solutions of America.

"It is amazing that work order systems can be used for small projects like this one."

Additionally, the City of Sardis requested the collection of pipe material data from the meter to the house to identify and record lead pipes. The Fieldman team added a special drop-down menu with different pipe materials, including galvanized, lead, roll plastic, and PVC. During each installation, field workers observed the pipe material and recorded it in the system. Fortunately, no lead pipes were detected.

This project was completed within budget and within two months.

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Customer results:

 • For local governments, cybersecurity has been identified as the top priority in the previous nine surveys, according to the "State of City and County IT National Survey 2023" report.

  • When asked the question, "What do you see as the key priorities for your IT department to focus on over the next 2 years?" nearly all participants (97%) mentioned cybersecurity as a key priority.

  • This was followed by modernizing outdated IT systems and applications (62%).