Lehighton will apply for a grant to assist with installing smart metering.

Borough council on a 5-0 vote Monday approved a resolution for the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships grant.

Borough Manager Steve Travers said that if received, the GRIP grant would assist the borough, along with other municipalities.

He said the total grant for the borough would be $1.4 million - the borough would be responsible for more than $800,000 over the course of 10 years.

Travers said that would be $6,900 per month.

“We’d be able to read meters immediately,” Travers said. “It’s all done in the virtual world.”

Travers added that it’s constantly pulling data.

“We wouldn’t have to send anybody out to read meters, which makes things a lot easier when we have trouble accessing the meters,” he said. “The other thing it does, we’ll be able to look at the computer system to also detect if we lose power; it also will tell you what is going on with your system in real time.”

Pennsylvania Small Water Grant

Council on a 5-0 vote Monday approved a resolution designating Travers as signor for the H20 Pennsylvania Water Supply, Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Projects grant.

In January, council unanimously adopted a resolution to apply for a PA Small Water Grant.

At that time, borough engineer Vanessa Nedrick, of Remington & Vernik, said that if received, the grant would be used to address the borough’s inflow and infiltration.

Nedrick said there are two drainage areas in the older portions downtown that have about 80% flow infiltration.

She said there’s a 50% grant match. The total amount of the grant is $916,868, with the match being $458,433.

Travers said at that time the match portion is from the borough’s ARPA funds.

However, Travers said the amount of the match has since been modified, and is now around $250,000.

He said the study broke it up into seven drainage areas.

Travers said that if the borough were to get the grant and use ARPA funds, it would take care of two drainage areas.

He said the grant would mean savings so the borough could add a smaller project for next year, possibly a third drainage area.