Selectmen Approve Funds Transfer For GIS

The East Windsor Board of Selectmen Monday approved transferring $19,733 from reserve accounts to help pay for a geographic information system or GIS requested by the .

Selectmen are recommending the transfer to the board of finance which must make the final approval. The board of selectmen had a special meeting in Monday.

WPCA Chief Operator Edward Alibozek said the agency is in the process of digitizing its records and the GIS is part of that effort. Currently, when someone wants to see records of sewer pipes throughout the town they often have to refer to paper maps that were created in the 1940s and are deteriorating.

“We have a ton of paper maps that need to be digitized,” Alibozek said.

The system will help the WPCA manage its assets, mainly 33 miles of sewer lines, many of which are more than 100 years old, officials said.

Alibozek said using the GIS will help the agency keep track of problem areas in the sewer lines that are found using television camera inspections of the pipes. Getting the GIS was approved a few years ago, he added.

WPCA Superintendent E. Arthur Enderle III said using a third-party contractor to do the camera inspections, the agency can find out in what condition the pipes from the inside. Officials know they have problems in the system, the camera allows them to find them and do spot repairs, avoiding catastrophic failures in the future, he said.

“We get a baseline of the conditions of the pipes,” Enderle said.

Putting that information in the GIS system will also help, officials advise developers early on where problems might be and avoid huge problems later, Enderle said.

First Selectwoman Denise Menard said she also believes that the more day to day maintenance is done and the less emergency repairs needed is much better for the town.

Alibozek said the WPCA’s GIS can be used with similar information the town assessor, town planner, public works department, and police and fire departments already have for a complete mapping of the community.

Because the amount is less than $20,000, a town meeting is not needed for approval. Alibozek said the amount requested is what was left in the reserve account.

Menard said the money is left over from other projects and using it is a good idea because the town needs every penny to count for something.