City Preps for Winter: Buys Salt, Plow Trackers

At its Nov. 4, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council authorized a total of around $400,000 on two items connected to the approaching winter weather. A purchase of $330,000 worth of ice control salt from Detroit Salt Company was authorized.

In addition, the council approved a project budget of $88,000 for a vehicle location tracking system, which will allow GPS tracking of city field services vehicles like street sweepers and snow plows. The council amended the original proposal to restrict the initial implementation to snowplows. It will be possible for residents to log on to a webpage and watch the snowplow activity in real time so that they can better anticipate the arrival of plows in their area and assure themselves that snowplowing is happening. Residents will also be able to explore archived data and historical analysis of past snowstorms.

However, director of IT services Dan Rainey says that the mapping capability is not driving the software purchase – it’s the ability of the software to actively manage and monitor the operation and systems on a vehicle, by directly tapping into a vehicle’s engine codes. The system is expected to be operational sometime this winter, but likely not before the first snowfall. The source of the originally proposed $200,000 was IT charges collected outside the general fund from water, sewer, solid waste, and major streets funds.

This brief was filed from city council chambers. A more detailed report of the meeting will follow: [link]