On Wednesday, November 6th, MVPC offered a forum at the Merrimac Town Hall to showcase the latest technologies in municipal planning. The presentations were given to a group of the Merrimack Valley’s Mayors, Managers, Administrators, DPW Directors and IT staff in hopes of bringing comprehensive technological solutions to the communities. Over the course of the day several municipal officials as well as MVPC staff and industry leaders shared their expertise on topics such as Asset Management, GPS Based Fleet Management and Drone applications to demonstrate the evolving “data ecosystem” our communities are participating in.
Opening the day, MVPC’s Jerrard Whitten and Steve Lopez navigated through the data ecosystem and shared data collection methods for asset management. With live demos they showcased the intuitiveness of GIS as an inventory mechanism and facilitator in asset management. Upon conclusion, they expressed the future of these technologies lies in integrating the various systems together with a feed of “live” up to date data. This set the stage for the next speaker, Town of Andover’s Rachel Ciaramitaro to discuss her experience with MaintStar as a customizable maintenance management system. Rachel created a system that was tailored to each department’s specific needs—which allowed them to optimize their maintenance requests and asset management. While Maintstar is excellent for internal use, Rachel determined that it lacked a friendly interface for residents to interact with. To address this, Mike Stankovich from the City of Haverhill, spoke to the integration of QAlert’s 311 program with their MaintStar system.
The 311 program utilizes a small call center that fields resident inquiries and allows the operators to coordinate these inquiries with maintenance requests in the MaintStar system. The Asset Management section closed with a lively Q&A among the communities that allowed them to share ideas and suggestions. After a short break, Mike Stankovich opened back up with Haverhill’s GPS Based snow plow tracking initiative. He discussed the advantages and considerations of this technology. MVPC’s Mikayla Minor showcased the pilot Regional Fleet Management program that MVPC collaborated with the City of Newburyport to develop using Verizon’s NetworkFleet. Each shared the ability to maximize accountability, minimize liability and optimize fleet performance by protecting municipal assets.
Eventually, the intent is to integrate this data into the existing MVPC GIS framework. Concluding this section was another Q&A where Newburyport’s Deputy DPW Jamie Tuccolo shared his experience with the program. This instigated an informative discussion among the communities about the practicality and feasibility of these programs. Mike Sabulis wrapped up the day by sharing GEI’s experience using Drones for engineering applications and the services these drones provide to communities. Anywhere from the procurement of ground level utility imagery, to full 3D models and wetland delineations, can be accessible to communities through these unmanned vehicles. With representatives from almost every community, the day provided a comprehensive opportunity for communities to collaborate and share their trials with these technologies while engaging with industry experts. There was consensus that the forum was beneficial with a desire for MVPC to host it on an annual basis. A special thank you to the Town of Merrimac for hosting the event and a good time was had by all. For more information on these technologies please contact MVPC’s GIS Department.