Sanitary engineers propose RFQ to map county water and sewer assets using GPS/GIS

Sanitary engineering staff told the board they want to issue a request for qualifications to hire contractors to collect GPS coordinates and complete water and sanitary sewer geographic information system (GIS) layers.

Gary Negra, sanitary engineer (as identified in the transcript), said the county's in-house staff would need five to six years to collect the necessary coordinates for thousands of assets and that contracting the work would allow one firm to do both water and sewer (structured as two contracts paid from separate funds). He described operational benefits including targeted valve exercise, hydrant maintenance, locating prior grease plugs, and enabling field crews to access updated maps and schedules on laptops.

Negra said some GIS work for the water layer had been funded through the county's lead-service-line inventory grant but that those grant funds are expended; he will issue the RFQ, evaluate qualifications and return with negotiated costs for the board to consider.