June 24, 2013 Work Session

Attendance:  Reinhardt, Williamson, Hughes, Bren, Sippel, Attorney Beck, Engineer Pearson and Kirk Mohs, City Staff Tolsma, Lewin and Goman.

 

  1. GIS PROGRAM DEMONTSRATION 7:00 – 8:00
    1. Included for council review is a proposal from MFRA to provide geographic information systems (GIS) services for the city.  Paul Pearson from MFRA will be at the meeting to discuss the proposal in detail.  Additionally, one of MFRA's IT employees will be in attendance to do a demonstration of the key features and applications that staff are interested in implementing for the city. 

Paul Pearson said at the May 8th council meeting it was decided a demonstration would be worthwhile therefore a representative from MFRA is here to discuss.  Kirk Mohs of MRFA said it is attribute driven technology for information collection of infrastructure, fixed features and other.  Mohs said the city has already investigated some of the available software and decided they liked a product called TerraGo.  Sippel explained it’s a series of overlays superimposed over a base map.  Reinhardt asked how much of Spring Park is already in digital form.  Mohs said the sanitary sewer and the water main is in a GIS format as well as water main services to the properties and some storm sewer catch basins.  Pearson said the focus is on sewer and water.  Mohs said TerraGo’s prime objective is to improve the productivity of the worker who relies upon the maps while capturing and sharing real-time intelligence.  He said maps can be marked up to personalize and they are very collaborative based. He said Adobe is used.  MFRA does not have the full version of TerraGo.  Mohs said the objective is to do away with paperwork.  He said updates are date-stamped and indicate who the creator and user is.  Goman said it captures historical data.  Reinhardt said she’s not convinced this is the route to go for the property files.  Pearson said this eliminates rolls of plans being transported. 

 

Pearson said $3,000 is the initial payment and $1,000 annual cost.   Reinhardt asked about other costs.  Mohs said the software needed is a free Adobe toolbar.  Hughes asked where the data is stored and Mohs says it’s stored in one PDF and it can be loaded on a thumb drive or downloaded from MFRA.  Williamson is concerned about backups of data and Goman explained there are duplicates between the city and MFRA.  Hughes asked if MFRA’s server is backed up and Mohs said it was.  Williamson is also concerned that field updates are tracked as they occur referencing the Spring Street changes that weren’t documented and discovered during the development of Lakeview Lofts. 

 

Reinhardt would like to know a little more detail about interactive changes and how it’s managed so changes are not lost.  Pearson said the annual maintenance cost is for updating TerraGo’s system.  He said the actual data entry is additional costs depending on what’s added.  Williamson said there is concern there will be additional costs and the unknown of those costs.  Goman said it’s already been budgeted and they are currently being paid out now.  Williamson asked who else has this in the lake area.  Goman said many cities use a type of system that is similar but even more expensive Cadillac versions.  Williamson wants more information about costs related to manage this plan. 

 

  1. INFORMATIONAL DOCUMENTS
    1. Spring 2013, Fall 2012, & Spring 2012 Cleanup Details Showing Quantities

Reinhardt said this was presented to just stay updated on this.  Sippel said he was surprised at how low the fall pickup was.   

 

3.         MISCELLANEOUS –

Goman recapped this past weekend’s events.  He said power was lost and wires were down.  Streets were swept on Monday morning for the debris. Goman said a tree was removed on Shoreline Drive that was split.  He said there still is a list of work to be done on several of the streets.  Goman said there was a lift station that was out of power on Channel Rd.  He said there is some reserve service time available but as they were preparing to hook up the generator, the power came back.  Williamson wondered about responsiveness during a weekend.  Goman said it goes through HC dispatch and there is a priority list involving police, fire and Orono public works established. Williamson asked who has the authority to hire the contractors and Goman said himself and Orono public works if they are on call. 

 

Adjourned 8:55 pm