Hartford
The map, which Public Works Director Rich Menge said could help smooth future planning for municipal projects, is costing about $80,000 to produce.
“The aerial flight for the utility mapping you approved was done on April 21 and … the conditions were quite good,” interim Town Manager Pat MacQueen told the Selectboard during a Tuesday night meeting.
Menge said that, though the town does have maps of various utilities — water mains and fire hydrants, sewer and sidewalks — the information has come from a variety of sources, and has a scale of 1 inch to 200 feet. The town hopes the map that results from the aerial survey, which will cover 4,875 acres of land, will have an accurate scale of 1 inch to 40 feet.
“It will be of a high enough quality that we’ll be able to go out and locate a lot of stuff with staff, and get it on paper” Menge said.
Staff asked the Selectboard to approve the funding on an expedited basis in late March so the airplane could do its work before new spring growth obscured the birds-eye view. The money will come from capital reserves in the water enterprise and the wastewater funds, and half of that amount could be recouped by applying for state grants.
Menge said the total mapping project could take two to three years to complete, but it would help to reduce engineering costs for future projects.
The project was also seen as critical because the Public Works Department is about to retire three workers with a combined 100 years of experience.
“Our top highway and water employees anticipate retirement in the next few years,” Menge wrote to the Selectboard in a memo detailing the proposal.
The town “will effectively lose its most significant institutional memory in all utility fields,” he wrote. “We would like to tap these resources before they leave … and also stimulate and involve replacement staff persons with the tools to do their jobs.”
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.