07-14-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of City Council FROM: Bill Dircks, Public Works Director DATE: July 14, 2021 RE: Update on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Internship ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Information Only / No Action Required BACKGROUND: When the City of Little Canada transitioned to Bolton & Menk for engineering services in 2019, one of the key priorities was to maximize the utilization of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). City staff has made ongoing efforts to utilize our GPS unit for data collection over the past few years, however there were still several areas where additional data was needed. During the recruitment and hiring process for the Code Enforcement/Rental Licensing Coordinator, the City Administrator noticed that one of the applicants had a Bachelor of Arts in Regional and Global Geography and listed experience with ESRI and ArcGIS tools. While this applicant was not a finalist for the previous position, staff determined that they would be an ideal fit for a GIS intern project and reached out to the applicant to see if they might be interested. After a formal interview, staff decided to hire Olivia Conn as a summer intern utilizing the budget for one of the seasonal positions. The primary purpose of the internship was to assess the amount of impervious area for all large industrial and commercial properties and obtain some average impervious areas for residential lots as staff prepares for a potential storm water utility fund. That work involved sitting at a work station and using the tools available on the software to measure areas. Bolton & Menk was kind enough to let Olivia use a work station at its Maplewood office. This was an ideal opportunity because Bolton & Menk staff were able to work closely with her to make sure the data collected was sufficient for the storm water utility modeling. The internship started in early May, and Olivia completed the impervious surface calculation work much faster than expected. Because of this, Bolton & Menk GIS staff was able to train her to use the City’s GPS equipment to collect additional data and GPS coordinates for other infrastructure, including: • All street signs • All park benches • All park bridges • All parking lot lights • All Streetlights in the Little Canada Road area • All utility boxes in cul-de-sacs and others around town (for snow plowing purposes) • All curb stops in Pitrina Park • All bus stops in the City limits • All crosswalks