According to Mayor Jason Akers, Monticello “greatly underutilized” the technology at its disposal and established protocol that the Mayor believes will improve services to citizens and enhance operational capabilities.
Eagle Forestry Services (EFS) is a local company that has provided geographic information software services and technical assistance to the City of Monticello for a number of years.
“Mayor Allen Maxwell had the vision to obtain the software to map water leaks and locations of water meters and show which areas needed infrastructure improvements,” said Mayor Akers. “Over time, since 2011, use of the software by City departments wasn’t mandated. Now it is.”
This week, Akers called a meeting with Department Heads and EFS to familiarize departments with the capabilities of the software and establish protocol for use of the service, which Akers believes is vital to Monticello’s modernization.
The software was used optionally by different entities within the city, such as the Monticello Fire Department, who has been using it to map fire hydrants and more recently, locations where city permits were issued.
Public Works will be utilizing the software not only to map leaks, manhole covers, water and sewer line locations and water wells, but the police department intends to utilize it for sex offender addresses, and the water quality operators will use it to map wells and make notations about infrastructure repairs.
“One issue we are dealing with is that old repairs, piping systems and projects were performed in an era where there was little to no documentation of when, where and why things were repaired,” Akers stated. “What documentation is available is usually on paper and often time consuming to locate. We are changing that. Future Mayors can access this system and see exactly what we did and why, so they can make informed decisions long after we are gone.”
Additionally, clogged storm drains are an issue. By mapping all of the drains, Street and Drainage staff will be able to conduct a quarterly or bi-monthly inspection of the drains to clean them BEFORE they cause water to back up. Major drain ditch repair will also be logged, as will infrastructure projects related to drainage.
“As a City and often by necessity, we have dealt with issues when they happen as opposed to working to address problems BEFORE they happen,” Akers said. “We are changing that approach. It will take time to get everything mapped, but we start now.”
