The town may soon be receiving long-awaited technology upgrades in almost every department through the use of grant funds.
In June 2013, the town received $776,107 through the state’s Local Government Performance and Efficiency Program, because of efforts in 2012 to consolidate some employees within the Parks and Recreation Department with the Highway Department. This allowed more workers to help with plowing in the winter.
Some of the grant money has already been used to fund tax-relief efforts and to pay for new sidewalks in parts of Glenmont. However, as part of this year’s budget, Supervisor John Clarkson is asking that a portion of the money be spent on technology upgrades.
Although the budget has yet to be approved, Clarkson said he expects most Town Board members and residents will agree the upgrades are needed.
“I think this is a very appropriate use of the efficiency grant money,” said Clarkson. “Many of our employees are still searching through paperwork and filing it by hand, and we need an updated database of our records.”
Townwide upgrades
Director of Management of Information Services Jeffrey Dammeyer and his staff are handling the majority of the work. One of the largest upgrades is a new times and attendance system called Kronos.
“The reason to upgrade that is because the current system uses paper or time clocks,” he said.
About $97,000 is proposed to pay for the system. Labor employees in Highway, Parks, and the Water and Sewer Departments will clock in and out using their fingerprints. Clerical staff will use a new website. All of the information will then automatically be sent to payroll.
The new system will come with a dashboard interface for managers so they can see when employees are in the office. They can also more easily arrange schedules and time off to prevent overtime.
The new system is expected to be installed by mid-December.
The Town Board already approved about $28,000 from the efficiency grant for new security cameras throughout the inside and outside of Town Hall, and other town buildings. The cameras will be of better quality and allow for the video to be stored for some time for review purposes if needed.
Assessor
The second largest project is in the assessor’s office.
About $30,000 has been set aside to modernize the office and help complete the new database from the recent assessments. Town officials also want to do more to get employees out into the field. An iPad has been purchased for the department to access the new system and enter information while in the field.
“This will make sure we have updated data each time we visit a property,” said Clarkson.
The plan is that by the next time the town does a reassessment, which should be in about five years; a digital sketch is available for each property in town. Money will go to update this system since during the last assessment, GAR Associates only provided the service for commercial properties.
The target date for this upgrade is late 2015.
Building
The Building Department will be seeing similar upgrades. About $18,000 is being sought for three iPads and support software to allow greater access while out in the field.
The information collected can then be shared with the Assessor Department and vice versa.
Highway
After a pilot study was done last spring, it was found that installing a GPS system into the cars in the Highway and Parks Departments would be beneficial.
The new GPS system could track where the cars go. A new no-idle policy would also help to cut down on fuel use. Highway Superintendent Brent Meredith said $270,000 was spent on fuel between the two departments last year. It is estimated the new policy and vehicle tracking could cut fuel costs by 12 percent. About 50 vehicles would have the new GPS installed.
“Anything we can do to cut fuel costs is good,” said Meredith.
A similar system may be proposed for the town’s police department in the future.
The system will cost about $12,000, with an annual fee of $8,000, but the company allows for the GPS in some vehicles, like the town’s snow plows, to be turned off for some portions of the year. The department is foreseeing an annual savings of about $20,000.
Town clerk and comptroller
An additional $10,000 is being sought for software upgrades for the Comptroller’s Office to better sort the town’s financial data in different ways to help find cost savings.
For the town clerk, $12,000 is proposed to digitize all the town’s records.
This will cover the scanning of all the documents and the cost of a new retrieval system, which can be accessed by various departments when needed. The new system will be able to link residents’ documents so they can all be found in one place, and will have an easier keyword search.
The next budget discussion is set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at Town Hall.
