Putnam Pipe Blog

There has been much talk about the Government Bailout or Stimulus Money in the past six months. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was designed to pump money into the American economy until more permanent solutions could take over. These stop-gap measures are temporary and money is being spent on programs that have little or nothing to do with infrastructure, construction, or anything concrete.

Regardless of the national government’s involvement, municipalities do not have to wait around for their chance at Stimulus Money to begin curing their ailing balance sheets. Manufacturers are offering cutting edge products designed to save you money immediately and payback of your investment for the long term. These products integrate into your existing systems seamlessly, and allow you to benefit from the latest technological advances available today. There are products you can add to your residential meters to capture all the low flow water usage. Alternatives to your water pipe that is both lighter and stronger than the pipe currently being used. Then there are meter reading systems that allow you to read your entire system without even leaving your office. This allows you to eliminate the delay in your billing cycle while waiting for meter readers to collect reads. The improvements in your cash-flow cycle has an immediate payoff. Add to that the elimination of the carbon footprint will help the green initiative set out by many government agencies.
These are proven products available in the market today and can immediately affect your bottom line. As a distributor in the supply chain, it is our job to bring these products from the manufacturer to the customer. Contact us to see what can be done today to increase your revenue and maximize your infrastructure investment.

Unbilled and unaccounted for water is a constant concern for growing municipalities. The disparity between what you pump each year versus what the customer is billed for increases every year. This is usually a combination of leaks, theft, unmeasured and unaccounted for water.
It is probably no surprise to you that water meters do not measure for the total water usage of a home. Unmeasured water is non-revenue water. Water can flow at a rate below a meter’s design point which can account for as much as 25,000 gallons per household of unbilled water annually; water that is wasted and must be treated by the public wastewater system.

Would you consider buying a new product that could increase the measurement of billable water by as much as five to ten percent! Most cities and towns would jump at that opportunity. Water metering and billing is one of your primary revenue sources and today most cities and towns are being squeezed for every penny.

We have a new product that captures this low flow water and forces it through the meter, forcing nearly every drop to be registered by the water meter. Losses are reduced and customers are billed for the proper amount being used. This product can be added into the customers meter service at any time and in most cases requires no additional plumbing. The UFR simply replaces the outlet meter coupling that is attached to the water meter. It is technology that is unmatched to date in water measuring.

Check out the UFR – UNMEASURED-FLOW REDUCER today. Putnam Pipe is proud to be a distributor for A.Y. McDonald and can supply you with your UFRs today!

There is a water main break every hour of the day, somewhere in the country. Our infrastructure is old, outdated, undersized and continues to wreak havoc on our cities and towns. Check out www.waternewsupdate.com and you’ll see examples of the problems occurring in this country. These breaks disrupt our lives, the quality of our water, our businesses and can even become deadly. Those of us in the waterworks industry are responsible for solving this problem. It’s too big of a problem to ignore any longer.

One company, IPEX, is not ignoring our infrastructure problems and has done something to help solve the problem. They have produced a new type of pipe, Bionax, which is designed to have the strengths associated with Ductile Iron, with the many design features associated with PVC-including:

Lightweight and Ease of Handling
Reduced Maintenance and Pumping Costs
Manufacturing Consistency
Quality CI and DI Outside Diameters for System Integration

The pipe is manufactured to AWWA specification C909, NSF, and ASTM standards.
Imagine a pipe with all the benefits associated with conventional PVC, yet dramatically stronger and more impact resistant.
Take a look at this demonstration video on YouTube to see just how durable this pipe is.

You now have an additional choice to consider when designing your new or replacement water mains. Putnam Pipe has been a proud distributor of IPEX pipe for over 20 years, and looks forward to discussing this exciting pipe alternative with your city officials and design engineers.

It seems as though municipal officials and construction engineers are all scurrying to get a piece of the government stimulus money, or ARRA-The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Cities and towns are all trying to improve their infrastructure while the assistance money is available.  The improvements in infrastructure are needed, and the funding available, but the requirements for this work can be constricting.  The ARRA has a “Buy America Clause” with provisions for the material on these projects to be produced in the United States, unless this creates undue hardship on the job, unacceptable delays, or causes the total cost of the job to increase by more than 25%.  What is confusing to me is that the “Buy America” statute does not include Canada or Mexico.  Our industry just went through an immense NAFTA acceptance and we have established vendors both north and south of the border.  A primary goal of NAFTA was to keep the jobs and products produced local to North America, and fight competition from around the world.  Countries that are not in step with our political process, ecological goals, job conditions or employee wages.  This goal is close to being realized as jobs and manufacturing seems to be on the rebound in this country, and jobs staying in North America.  It seems the combination of the quality control, cost of transportation, and language barriers were all too much to overcome with foreign products in our industry.

While I understand the “Buy America” sentiment, please realize the benefits to this country in dealing with our direct geographical neighbors also.  It has been a long time since we had any conflicts with our neighbors, and they are great allies in many ways.

A “North American” specification for your products will ensure the product is produced locally, and promote many of the goals we set out to achieve when manufacturing in this country.

Lately whenever someone finds out that I am in the underground pipe or construction industry, they seem to ask two questions.  First is, “How are things going?”  The second is invariably, “What about all the federal stimulus money?” 

I have to chuckle at both questions but it really is not funny.  Things are fine at our company but could be a lot better.  As a business owner, we are asked to take risks every day we open our doors.  Whether it is with our employees, our product, our vendors or our customers, taking risk is where you get ahead and what made this country great.  The problem I see is that the banks want to assume no risk and little involvement in helping to turn this economy around.  The need to stop being banks, and start being “lending institutions”.  Yes there is risk in this idea, but if we are going to trust them with our money, then they need to act responsibly and work with that money.  Hoarding the money and cleaning up their balance sheets will not help anyone.  Tell them to get the money out in the streets!

As far as question two, we are still waiting for the trickle down of the federal stimulus money in our business.  I recently read an article that explained the breakdown of the federal money.  I was shocked to find that only 6% of the money is going to “highway” projects, which include roads and bridges.  A whopping 63% is going to Medicare and Medicaid payments and to help shortages in those government agencies.  I will not open the doors tomorrow morning waiting for my little piece of the 6%, as that money is so tied up in administrative and procedural problems, that many towns have all but abandoned the projects that they submitted.

Bottom line is that there is no quick-fix or cash cow to get this country out of this mess. 

Do your little part and ask you bank what they are doing to push the economy forward.

It is your money and you need it to grow, just like the economy.

Don’t accept or lower your expectations in this down economy!  In this era of shrunken businesses, reduced workforces, and pay as you go services, continue to look for the support and attention you deserve.  We already have too much disposable product, self-serve this, drive through that, telephone support from nowhere, and “press 1 if you want to continue in English”.

Many businesses have remained intact, and are continuing to reach out to the customer.  Yes, they are increasing customer contact, and actually trying to grow during these touch economic times.  They can see the light at the end of a long tunnel and are forging full steam ahead towards it without expecting help from the government.  Whether it be products for our industry, your home, office, automobile or cell phone, the new products and services are really remarkable.