Last week in this space the technology improvements achieved in the Police Department were explored. There have been a number of other uses of technology that departments throughout the City are planning, or have implemented. Let’s review some of these other technology advancements.
The Green Agenda
The City Commission recently adopted an amendment to the City’s Strategic Plan that directs staff to seek out ways for the City to “go green” – to conserve natural resources. One of the first projects in this effort is now in it’s first run: The Green Agenda. In this program, rather than copy hundreds of pages for City Commission agenda packets, the agenda is transferred to PDF files and loaded on to laptops for the City Commission. A side benefit is that the PDF files can also be quickly made available on the City’s website (
http://www.cityoflakewales.com/) for everyone to review. The cost of this program is estimated at $9,500 which will be recovered in approximately 2 years from the savings in copy machine, bindery supplies, and paper costs.
Fuel Accounting
Until January 2006, City employees dispensed gasoline to city vehicles and then wrote down the number of gallons pumped in a book. This presented a number of problems, and staff found a company with software that:
- Records the number of gallons dispensed in a particular vehicle
- Records the mileage
- Downloads this data to a schedule for oil changes and other preventive maintenance items based on mileage.
Since the fuel accounting has been in use, expenditures for fuel are fully accountable and maintenance scheduling has improved. The new system also tracks the use of diesel fuel to off-road equipment, which has resulted in fuel tax savings. This investment of $13,098 paid for itself within one year.
Automatic Water Meter Reading
A number of cities use computerized devices to read water meters by transmitting the readings by radio frequency directly into the city records and billing department. The vendors for these systems insist that the city should change out all meters immediately to realize the savings quickly – except that would require borrowing about $1 million dollars, and result in laying off some water meter readers with valuable experience. City staff decided to go with a “pay as you go” approach, where new developments pay for their new meters, and the existing meters in the rest of the city are phased in as old meters are routinely changed out. The City is also taking a two-step approach, using a hand-held wand to collect the data, and later switching to the radio frequency method, to help ensure system accuracy.
Work Orders
There is an old saying in city government: “What gets measured, gets done.” To keep up with work assignments in the water, sewer, streets, building maintenance, and parks departments, City staff began using a computerized work order system a year ago. This system allows the City to keep track of work requests, and is building a database for measuring how long it takes to complete assignments.
Computerized Fire Pre-Planning and Reporting
The Fire Department utilizes computer technology for report writing and for “pre-fire planning”. Every commercial building in town has been visited by fire fighters who have drawn a floor plan and made notes pertinent to combating a fire. These notes include whether or not the building has a fire sprinkler system, and the presence and location of stored gasoline or other flammable materials. Another computer program, using “global positioning system” technology, shows a map of the fire hydrants in the area of the fire. These plans and maps are stored in laptop computers on our fire trucks and are accessed by one of the firefighters enroute to the fire scene. The critical information is then radioed to members of the department pulling up on the scene, and the scene commander makes decisions concerning how and where to begin the fire attack with the benefit of this information.
Fire Department Imager
Each of our two fire stations has an “imager” that allows fire fighters to find persons trapped in smoke-filled buildings. These units cost on the order of $10,000, and one was paid for by the Lake Wales Fire Department Ladies’ Auxiliary.
