NAHANT — The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to allocate $43,750 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the purposes of upgrading the town’s geographic information system (GIS) and conducting a state-mandated public-water-system service-line inventory.
The GIS project received $25,000 of the amount, while the service-line inventory accounts for the remaining $18,750.
Town Administrator Tony Barletta explained that the town’s GIS system has expired and needs to be updated.
“The proposal is going to be to renew our license, upgrade our license, and update all of our layers with the most recent information,” Barletta explained.
He added that the town has conducted numerous infrastructure projects throughout the last half-decade that need to be included in the GIS database.
All municipalities are required to deliver their water-service-line inventory statistics to the Department of Environmental Protection by October. Barletta said that the service-line project will also benefit the GIS system, as the information gathered through the inventory process will be added to the database.
“When you’re working with a limited budget, it tends to be one of the capital projects that falls off the priority list,” Barletta said. “So ARPA funds is the perfect funding source for these types of projects.”
The GIS is capable of sharing specific details, such as how many turns it takes to open or close a fire-hydrant valve.
