GIS Steering Committee

“Where People Count” MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1000 Civic Center Drive, Niles, Illinois 60714 Telephone (847) 588-8000 Fax (847) 588-8050 GIS Steering Committee Meeting September 8, 2011 Co-Chairs: Andrew Przybylo – Trustee George Van Geem – Village Manager Persons in attendance: Robert Callero Mayor Steve Cusick MIS Mousa Nazzal Engineering Superintendent Chuck Ostman Community Development Director Bob Pilat Public Services Bill Shaw MIS Director George Van Geem Village Manager Andrew Vitale MIS – Sr. GIS Coordinator Rich Wlodarski Community Development The meeting was called to order at 8:05 a.m. Agenda Item #1 – Approval of Minutes The minutes of the August 12, 2011 meeting were approved. Agenda Item #2 – Old Business – Project Updates Maintenance Management System (MMS) B.Shaw reported that he is finishing building the user database so that we can set up security and labor rates for all the participants in this system. The next step is to add these participants (users) to the MMS. All employees who should be a part of this system have been given logins. He asked Bob Pilat to have these employees contact Trish Finn to set up their passwords. A PC has been set up in a spare cubicle at Public Works that is available for them to use, although they can log on to any machine. Let Bill know if they need instructions, and contact MIS if there are any issues. A.Vitale continued that with the users in place, we then go on to notifications, permissions, work order forms, etc. G. Van Geem referred to the minutes of the last meeting where Bill Shaw stated that he had “completed 95% of populating the system with information.” Is it safe to assume that it is now 100%? Bill responded 98%; Reukert-Mielke is the project leader and they are still giving us assignments, such as setting up user permission/notification. G. Van Geem again referred to the minutes of the last meeting, noting that Bill Shaw said that the next step is to “review issues that require serious technical analysis” and we’ll have “some serious announcements before the next meeting.” Bill Shaw responded that one of the issues was how to deal with the users – that part is already set up. We haven’t had a chance to get to the other serious issue – how we permanently, uniquely identify street segments and addresses. Atlas Property Details Data A.Vitale reported that at the last meeting we agreed that we wanted to look into a mechanism to keep the information on the Property Details section of Atlas up-to-date. We agreed that it is wisest to start with one point of contact (Andrew) who will receive notifications of information that has to change. He will then submit that notification to whomever is responsible for that particular database, or those data points. Bill Shaw and Steve Cusick have created a couple of change request forms, and they are working on the automation of the process or how to change the form on the Property Details section itself. Once that is complete, Andrew will be able to get those changes and submit them to the correct party. He will not change or update the information; each department will still have the responsibility to maintain their own data as they see fit, and can then communicate directly with the person requesting the change. Andrew will get notifications of it and will keep track of the action taken on the change items. B.Shaw continued that all departments have been contacted to find out who should be the point person for the different categories of information that we store. He and Steve Cusick worked out a method of putting a link on the page to allow the easy submittal of a change request. It should be up in the next few days. Atlas Training (not on the agenda) Mayor Callero asked for a status update on Atlas training. B. Shaw stated that Fire Chief Steve Borkowski had said that he would add Atlas training to their schedule, but Bill hasn’t heard back yet. He will follow up. He would like to train the Trustees last to make sure that any lingering changes are made before they see it – one of those changes being how to change information on the Property Details section, which should be done in the next week. Mayor Callero stated that he wants the Trustees to be trained before budget time. Bill will contact the Mayor once these changes have been implemented to discuss the approach to training the Trustees. Agenda Item #3 – New Business Sewer Infrastructure Updating (Stormwater Commission) A.Vitale reported that he received a directive from the Stormwater Commission that they want to have a good faith effort to continue to capture new sewer structures – particularly those we know about in residents’ backyards. He and Chuck Ostman have discussed processes that field crews can use with the proposed new field devices (laptops, tablets, etc.) that are in this year’s budget, and have looked at different software and tools that can be used along with the PDFs that Andrew generates on a nightly basis so he can receive notifications from them about the locations of these structures. Additionally, he has looked into purchasing GPS equipment, for which Public Works has budgeted approximately $24,000. Price points are between $18,000 and $24,000, depending on accoutrements. 2 At this point, the likely workflow is: a) Public Works crews use the field device to roughly mark the locations of the new structures. b) A.Vitale receives notification and roughs in the approximate location of the new structure. c) When the number of located structures builds up to a pre-determined number (20 or 30), he issues the GPS equipment to the crew so that the structures can be captured in an accurate manner. d) A.Vitale updates the true positions of the structures. This streamlined process will put new structures in as quickly and accurately as possible and will allow us to keep our atlases and sewer infrastructure up-to-date. In the next couple of weeks, A.Vitale would like to test various GPS devices for their capabilities and ease of use. He has asked Chuck Ostman to provide him with a list of structures that he knows are not on our maps or in our database; he will use these structures as part of the test of these devices. A.Vitale asked Bob Pilat to think about how he would like field crews to go about GPSing the information and who exactly will be doing it. Does he want the JULIE locator to do the GPSing? Should the device float between Water and Sewer? Please think about how this process will fit into what Public Works crews already do. C. Ostman reminded the committee that there are a lot of catch basins, manholes, etc that are not on the sewer maps; the sewer maps are very much incomplete. During the winter months, he would like one of his employees to team up with the Engineering Department and make sure he is properly trained to go out on the initial effort and capture the structures that Community Development people know the locations of. Mayor Callero suggested that we mark the maps before it snows. All concurred. C. Ostman continued that the ALTA survey in the Community Development Department has so much of this data. If we could go back to the engineer or surveyor and have them provide us with the CAD drawings, using our submission policy, we could get so much more data into our atlases that the work would already be done. We want to work on this during the winter months. Chuck Ostman will lead this effort. Digital Data Submission Policy A.Vitale has received a couple of submissions since our last meeting. He renews his call for this submission policy because the data that he is receiving, although valuable, takes a lot of time to input and is not lining up properly or easily. Because there is only one person inputting new information into our GIS, he needs to make this as streamlined as possible. It is unfeasible for him to spend three to four days on one single, small project. If information is submitted correctly using this policy, input time can be reduced from three days to less than one day. If this is too complicated for certain vendors or contractors, have them talk to him first and he will educate them on the purpose of the policy and what we’re looking to accomplish. The surveyors and engineers he has already spoken with are on board. If we find that the submission policy is not easy enough to adhere to, we can amend and streamline it. He would like to see this 3 policy rise to the level of some kind of rule for as-built submissions, possibly during the process of submissions. C. Ostman suggested that in order to ensure that everyone adheres to a submission policy, engineers, contractors, etc. have to be informed of it upfront during the plan review process. It should also be posted on the web with clear instructions. We should have Hey & Associates add that comment each and every time; it is their responsibility to make sure we receive it. An ordinance would make people comply; A.Vitale and C. Ostman will look into it. Tree Inventory B.Pilat announced that Public Services was awarded a $10,000 tree inventory grant that must be matched by the Village. The grant has two components: 1) an emerald ash management plan that must be done as a stock item and 2) a stem-by-stem tree inventory that involves inventorying each tree in the right-of-way or on public property. The work must be completed by the grant deadline of June 30, 2012. The intent of the grant is to develop a database so that we can immediately know how many of what kind of trees we have. The database would also include any action taken on individual trees. Under the grant constraints, the collection must be conducted by an arborist. We would write the specs to instruct that tree locations are to be captured by GPS. A tree inventory includes documenting the location, type, size, conditions, features, treatments, risk – about 20 common fields. The Village has approximately 8,600 trees, according to our 15- year-old inventory. Each year we remove and replace approximately 150 trees. Information found in our tree inventory is not easily accessible in our current method of record keeping. A tree inventory would give us the database management tool by which we could easily access and maintain information. It would also help us to know how the budget would be impacted in the event of blight on a particular kind of tree and would give us more information when deciding insurance claims. We are not in a rush to go out to bid on this project because we need a way to maintain and update the captured data. MMS would provide this tool. While we do have the option to purchase tree management software and spend approximately $2000 for a one-year license, we prefer to use the money from the grant to pay for the tree inventory and use our MMS to maintain the data once it’s delivered. B.Pilat continued that Davey Tree Company gave us a preliminary quote of approximately $40,000 to $50,000 to conduct a tree inventory. He does not, at this time, have a cost-per-tree. He would like approval to go out to bid in January of 2012 and have the bid awarded in February. The grant is worded that they can go out and do as much as the money allows; when the money runs out, the grant is complete. Ideally, he would like to put money in next year’s budget as well and have the contract worded such that we can increase the quantities so that if they are able to complete 60% of the town with the grant, we can have the same consultant keep on going over next budget year and complete the tree inventory, giving us a full, complete layer. G. Van Geem asked that we quantify the benefit of a tree inventory to see if it’s worth the cost and would be a benefit to the Village. A.Vitale responded that he will reach out to his colleagues to see how they are using their tree inventories; he will report at the next meeting. 4 Agenda Item #4 – Other Projects Stormwater Commission A.Vitale reported that he has done all the mapping of the information regarding the July 23, 2011 storm damage given to him by Steve Vinezeano. A. Vitale got a drawing from Mousa Nazzal for Maryhill Cemetery’s infrastructure, particularly regarding the series of catch basins put in behind the back yards of the properties on Monroe Street, on the south edge of the cemetery that butts up to the detention basin and flows out along Dempster. He put in those lines. That drawing also included infrastructure for the entire west side of Maryhill. He put it in GIS and will keep it there in the event that it is built in the future, but will not expose it on our Atlas maps because Chuck Ostman did not see that infrastructure in place. He will, however, show the line on the south end of Monroe going north, because he knows it is in the ground. Commercial Space Study (CD) A.Vitale participated in the mapping for the Commercial Space Study that was completed in mid-August. He has not heard of any action items since and is not planning to spend any time on it this month. GEAC / Police Incident Mapping (not on the agenda) A.Vitale made great progress recently with the GEAC mapping. He and Bill Shaw will meet with Chris Kobeski and police officials in the next few weeks to get the process started. Sewer & Planimetric Updates A.Vitale reported on small infrastructure updates at 8324 Western (near Normal) by Tom Polcyn and his TV camera crew and at Regency, 6631 Milwaukee. Signs (not on the agenda) B.Shaw reported that Bob Pilat sent an update of the MUTCD sign compliance dates. What was due the first quarter of next year has been changed to two years from whenever they make the agreement. We are still adding signs to MMS, but this change gives us more time to perhaps work on something else in the meantime. He asked Bob Pilat to keep us up-to-date with rulings from the MUTCD. Agenda Item #5 – Schedule Next Meeting (recommended date: October 13, 2011) The next meeting will be Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. in the 2nd floor conference room 218. The meeting was adjourned at 9:07 a.m. 5 Steering Committee Members Andrew Przybylo Trustee atp@vniles.com 847-588-8003 George Van Geem Village Manager gvg@vniles.com 847-588-8002 Bill Shaw MIS Director wfs@vniles.com 847-588-8015 Andrew Vitale MIS – Sr. GIS Coordinator ajv@vniles.com 847-588-8022 Steve Cusick MIS src@vniles.com 847-588-8018 Moses Nazzal Engineering Superintendent mhn@vniles.com 847-588-7924 Scott Jochim Public Services Director snj@vniles.com 847-588-7901 Bob Pilat Public Services rmp@vniles.com 847-588-7926 Rich Wlordarski Community Development rjw@vniles.com 847-588-8085 6