Council approves additional funding to expand CityWorks asset management to vertical utilities assets

Lorain City Council passed an ordinance, as amended, authorizing the Safety Service director to enter a contract with an engineering firm to implement CityWorks asset management software for the utilities department and to increase the project funding by approximately $250,000 to include vertical assets.

Administration staff told council the original CityWorks implementation (passed in 2022) covered horizontal assets — pipes, valves, hydrants and stormwater — at a cost of about $300,000. The newly authorized $250,000 increase will allow the city to inventory and manage vertical assets, beginning with wastewater pump stations and treatment plants and later including water towers, booster stations and the water plant.

City staff said the system moves the department away from spreadsheets toward a live, map‑based asset management system that supports preventive maintenance and more timely work‑order tracking. "We're able to pull the data and query it directly out of City Works so we can have it more real time," a utilities official told council. Staff also said the additional funding would be drawn partly from the current budget and budgeted across 2025 and 2026 to spread the cost.

Council amended the ordinance to delete one whereas clause and then voted to adopt the measure as amended; the ordinance passed unanimously. Councilmembers emphasized that improved asset tracking could reduce emergency repairs and preserve expensive capital equipment such as pumps (which staff said can cost between about $35,000 and $100,000 each).