Harmar buys app to allow easy access to sewer, waterline maps

A new software application will provide Harmar residents a more detailed look at their community through a cell phone app.

The township supervisors have agreed to buy the ARCGIS Online Development Proposal from Senate Engineering. The cost is just under $7,600.

For that money, the township will have the ability to download maps dealing with the township infrastructure that Senate Engineering already has on file.

As township engineer Matt Pitsch of Senate explained, if Township Manager Ian Fitzgerald needs to review a map of the sewage system to determine when and where repairs were made on a section of line, he would contact Pitsch.

Pitsch would then look up the appropriate file on Senate’s computer system, make a portable document file (PDF) and e-mail it to Fitzgerald, or make a printed copy and send it to him.

Under the new system, Senate’s existing Harmar map files would be uploaded to a cloud server and available to township officials on demand through a cell phone or computer app.

“We already have the maps, so we just have to upload them,” Pitsch said. “That’s why it’s not that expensive.”

“It will be layered so that we have our zoning maps in there; we can map our entire sanitary sewer system,” supervisors Chairman Bob Seibert said. “If we want to see where we have repaired parts of the sewer system with liners, we’ll be able to see that.”

Pitsch said selected township officials will be issued “creator” licenses through which they can go into the maps and update them as repairs or improvements are made to sewer lines or waterlines.

“It’s going to be a great tool for code enforcement and zoning,” Seibert said.

Zoning violations can be mapped through the system to show, for example, where in the township a particular violation has been cited and when the citations were issued, Seibert said.

But it won’t be just township officials with access to the information. Pitsch said the app through which the maps can be viewed will be available to the public.

“Anyone can get the app on their phone,” he said. “If you have a question on whether a sewer line or waterline is on your road, you can just open it up on the app and see for yourself.”

Supervisor Harry Lenhart said the township would have the ability to limit access to information available through the app but conceded that most of it would be information ordinarily open to the public.

“It’s kind of a new system, but it uses all the information we have,” Pitsch said.

“It’s a really great system,” Seibert said.

The supervisors all agreed that the price they’re paying for it made it even better.