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WINONA LAKE – Winona Lake Town Council approved purchasing GPS equipment and software to finish mapping the wastewater and stormwater systems.
In November, the council approved a contract with Wessler Engineering not to exceed $64,100. Tuesday, Town Manager Adam Lohn said the original contract was to map up to 200 manholes, “which at the time was thought to be the extent of the system. They have mapped up to 320.”
Lohn estimated there could be another 100 possible manholes that still need to be mapped around town. He said the mapping portion of the contract with Wessler has run out.
Lohn presented a couple options Wessler suggested. The first option is to stop mapping the town’s manholes and go with what they have. The second option was to allow Wessler to finish mapping the town’s manholes at an estimated $3,000 to $4,000. The last option was, for $4,318, the town could purchase the required GPS equipment of the software license for the town’s street department to finish the job.
Lohn said the benefit of the third option is the street department could map the stormwater system, which is not currently part of that contract. The town would have to purchase a one-year software license to be able to do that, which would include 12 hours of hands-on training. After the one year, the software license would have a continuing fee of $2,390 a year to maintain the software to continue camping any changes or extensions.
Lohn sad there’s no active monitoring built into the software, but it would allow street employees to record pictures of the sewer structure and they would have the location and condition of the manhole so the town can monitor things.
Councilman Jim Lancaster asked what the annual license fee does. Lohn said it takes the GPS coordinates and transfers all the data into a database for the town. Lohn said once the town is done mapping, they don’t have to pay for the software license at that point. The software license is just to do the mapping.
Lancaster asked if it would be possible to get the rest of the manhole covers, whether that’s wastewater or stormwater, in 12 months.
Street Superintendent Shane Parrett said he thinks it can be done. He also said the need is there. The new mapping system would help the town because with the current mapping system, the street department can’t always be accurate and it would be a timesaver.
The council approved to purchase the GPS equipment and software and then decide in the future if they need the software license beyond a year.
In other business, the council:
• Heard about Winona Happenings. The Farmers Market at Winona is every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Oct. 24. The Village Art Fair at the Village at Winona is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 6 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 7.
• Discussed having roller hockey at the Miller Sunset Pavilion. Council President Ashley McGinnis said there’s a group of people that likes to play ice hockey at the pavilion during the winter and they want to continue that during the summer.
The idea was to charge $5 a person for roller hockey from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday starting Tuesday, May 26 through Labor Day.
Lancaster said he was all for trying things like this, but had concerns about cost. The council approved having roller hockey at the pavilion and revisiting the issue in a month.
• Heard the SplashPad party will be from 5 to 7 p.m. May 30.
• Heard there will be an open house at Bibler Park from 6 to 7 p.m. June 17. Park Director Holly Hummitch said the purpose of the open house was to get a conversation started about the future of the park.
• Approved the annual agreement to be part of Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation for $33,225.
• Approved crediting $597.70 in regards to a utility dispute for 1219 Bibler Ave., owned by Joe and Lynette Hawn.
