ENFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008
A Public Hearing was called to order by Chairman Kaupin in the Council Chamber of the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 6:55 p.m.
ROLL-CALL – Present were Councilmen Bosco, Dumont, Edgar, Jones, Kaupin, Kiner, Lee, Mangini, Nelson and Ragno. Councilman Crowley arrived at 7:02 p.m. Also present were Town Manager, Matthew Coppler; Assistant Town Manager, Daniel Vindigni; Town Clerk, Suzanne Olechnicki; Town Attorney, Kevin Deneen; Director of Planning, Jose Giner; GIS Project Manager, Robert Sperrazza
Chairman Kaupin read the notice of Public Hearing which was published in the Journal Inquirer on Friday, March 28, 2008 as follows:
“The Enfield Town Council will hold a Public Hearing in the Enfield Town Hall, Council Chambers, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 6:55 p.m. to allow interested citizens an opportunity to express their opinions regarding the
Proposed GIS Data Cost Schedule and Electronic Submittal Ordinance.
Copies of the proposed ordinance are available for public inspection in the office of the Town Clerk, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Also available at the Town’s website www.enfield-ct.gov.”
Chairman Kaupin announced the ground rules for the Public Hearing.
Mr. Giner explained GIS stands for Geographic Information System. Mr. Sperrazza stated the cost schedule is a list of costs for the GIS databases. He noted state statute allows them to charge the use of GIS data to offset some of the Town’s costs for this system.
Mr. Giner pointed out the GIS is on the Town’s web page, and that is free for anyone to use. He explained they would be charging for the data itself. He noted this is a very expensive software package, and fees would help with the money invested in the GIS data. He went on to note they will have a data distribution policy, which will obligate people not to resell the data. He stated Town entities such as the fire districts and other state, local and regional government bodies would not be charged a fee. He added these entities would also be required to sign the Town of Enfield GIS distribution policy so they couldn’t sell information at a profit.
Charles Woods, 11 Westerly Drive
Questioned the cost effectiveness of the GIS system, how much revenue can be generated, and will this pay for itself, or will it be an on-going drain to the taxpayers. He acknowledged there’s a great benefit insofar as the use of it, especially for Town planning purposes to make sure they avoid flood areas and disasters. He stated his understanding this information can be sold to contractors.
Mr. Sperrazza stated the combined costs up to this date are about $150,000 between the cost of data and development. He noted the development has been done, therefore, there isn’t really a lot of cost involved in that besides hosting the website and updating the data. He stated a common practice is to update data for GIS every five to seven years, and a full-data update would cost approximately $170,000. He went on to note this is very valuable to the staff and would allow them to find geographic information at their fingertips without having to flip through paper maps. He stated they’ve had several requests for the data already.
Mr. Sperrazza stated they are currently building in-house an intranet site for staff to use as a tool. He noted they can build custom applications that pertain to specific departments and divisions so they can do their work more efficiently and provide better customer service.
As no others wished to speak, Chairman Kaupin closed the Public Hearing at 7:07 p.m.