Commissioners Approve Service Agreement For Online Permitting
June 10, 2020 at 12:50 a.m.
By David [email protected]
And permits from other county departments could follow suit.
The county commissioners Tuesday approved a service agreement with Schneider Geospatial for the permitting software.
In presenting the agreement, Assistant Planner Matt Sandy reminded the county commissioners Tuesday that the county was looking at going to a new system to try to do online permitting. What the Area Plan has now “is at the end of its life,” he said.
Over the last year or so, he said they’ve looked at different options, with part of the criteria to try to tie into the county’s Beacon (GIS mapping) system.
“And that’s what we’ve come back to you to talk about going with Schneider who does host a GIS system as well for a permitting system,” Sandy said.
The service agreement offers three options. Sandy said they went with looking at the “middle-of-the-road” option, “knowing that we’re going to need a little more assistance keeping this up and running. Not just for us, but trying to integrate other departments as much as possible.”
He said the shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was a great example of how the online permitting could have came in handy.
“We were still functioning through the shutdown, issuing permits. We issued 119 permits through that time period, but the online permitting would have streamlined that a lot better,” Sandy said, noting that everyone in the Area Plan office did a great job during that time, doing the best they could.
The set up cost for the Schneider Geospatial software is $39,170, and then an annual hosting fee of $8,040.
Commissioner Brad Jackson asked if other county departments could use the permitting software. Sandy said, “The nice thing about this is, it has the capability of hooking into any of our departments within the county that may see some use for it. So any form that we have that we need to get out there that the public could potentially fill out, we can make it work.”
Jackson said the online permitting was something the county talked about for a long time even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cary Groninger, commissioner, said, “I just think this is something we really need to offer to the public. Like he said, multiple offices are going to be able to use it. And there are no additional charges for these other departments to come onto it, so it really ended up being a good fit, plus we’re able to use one database in our existing systems. We’re not trying to keep up two databases and all this other stuff, so I think it’ll be a great addition for our constituents.”
Groninger made the motion to approve the service agreement, and it passed unanimously.
Next, County Administrator Marsha McSherry presented the county’s first submission under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act reimbursement, which totaled $77,036.54.
She said, “This was established by the federal government for 100% reimbursement of certain (preventions) that you had to use during the coronavirus. Anything from cleaning, antiseptics, sanitizing ... it can be for public health expenses, which includes the hand sanitizers, gloves, masks, handwipes. Public health expenses for disinfecting public areas and other facilities in the county buildings. You have public and health expenses, and this is for technical assistance. ... Public health expenses, and this is for any safety measures that were undertaken during the COVID-19 time period. And payroll expenses.”
McSherry said the county will submit its expenses monthly, and it can submit for expenses from March 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020.
The commissioners approved the submission of the reimbursement.
McSherry then presented the memorandum of understanding between the county and the city of Warsaw. The county and city are joining together to provide $300,000 from CARES Act funding for COVID-19 testing. Testing for Kosciusko County residents can be done at any of the three MedStat locations in the county – Nappanee, Syracuse and Warsaw, according to Groninger. The funding will pay for a little over 2,000 coronavirus tests.
The commissioners approved the MOU.
The next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. June 23.
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And permits from other county departments could follow suit.
The county commissioners Tuesday approved a service agreement with Schneider Geospatial for the permitting software.
In presenting the agreement, Assistant Planner Matt Sandy reminded the county commissioners Tuesday that the county was looking at going to a new system to try to do online permitting. What the Area Plan has now “is at the end of its life,” he said.
Over the last year or so, he said they’ve looked at different options, with part of the criteria to try to tie into the county’s Beacon (GIS mapping) system.
“And that’s what we’ve come back to you to talk about going with Schneider who does host a GIS system as well for a permitting system,” Sandy said.
The service agreement offers three options. Sandy said they went with looking at the “middle-of-the-road” option, “knowing that we’re going to need a little more assistance keeping this up and running. Not just for us, but trying to integrate other departments as much as possible.”
He said the shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was a great example of how the online permitting could have came in handy.
“We were still functioning through the shutdown, issuing permits. We issued 119 permits through that time period, but the online permitting would have streamlined that a lot better,” Sandy said, noting that everyone in the Area Plan office did a great job during that time, doing the best they could.
The set up cost for the Schneider Geospatial software is $39,170, and then an annual hosting fee of $8,040.
Commissioner Brad Jackson asked if other county departments could use the permitting software. Sandy said, “The nice thing about this is, it has the capability of hooking into any of our departments within the county that may see some use for it. So any form that we have that we need to get out there that the public could potentially fill out, we can make it work.”
Jackson said the online permitting was something the county talked about for a long time even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cary Groninger, commissioner, said, “I just think this is something we really need to offer to the public. Like he said, multiple offices are going to be able to use it. And there are no additional charges for these other departments to come onto it, so it really ended up being a good fit, plus we’re able to use one database in our existing systems. We’re not trying to keep up two databases and all this other stuff, so I think it’ll be a great addition for our constituents.”
Groninger made the motion to approve the service agreement, and it passed unanimously.
Next, County Administrator Marsha McSherry presented the county’s first submission under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act reimbursement, which totaled $77,036.54.
She said, “This was established by the federal government for 100% reimbursement of certain (preventions) that you had to use during the coronavirus. Anything from cleaning, antiseptics, sanitizing ... it can be for public health expenses, which includes the hand sanitizers, gloves, masks, handwipes. Public health expenses for disinfecting public areas and other facilities in the county buildings. You have public and health expenses, and this is for technical assistance. ... Public health expenses, and this is for any safety measures that were undertaken during the COVID-19 time period. And payroll expenses.”
McSherry said the county will submit its expenses monthly, and it can submit for expenses from March 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020.
The commissioners approved the submission of the reimbursement.
McSherry then presented the memorandum of understanding between the county and the city of Warsaw. The county and city are joining together to provide $300,000 from CARES Act funding for COVID-19 testing. Testing for Kosciusko County residents can be done at any of the three MedStat locations in the county – Nappanee, Syracuse and Warsaw, according to Groninger. The funding will pay for a little over 2,000 coronavirus tests.
The commissioners approved the MOU.
The next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. June 23.
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