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home > media > user spotlights > grand rapids, minnesota
Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Cityworks Utilized for Budgeting and Reporting
The Challenge
Before employing an asset maintenance management system, the City of Grand Rapids Public Works Department kept track of all work orders on handwritten daily activity reports which made data retrieval and analysis very time-consuming, if not virtually impossible. There was no link from any work orders to the GIS, making it nearly impossible to identify which structures had been worked on and how often the work was completed, except from the memory of staff members. In 2006, the City of Grand Rapids was required to report year-end maintenance and inspections of the stormwater system, forcing the Engineering and Public Works Departments to look for an asset management system to assist in this effort of tracking work orders linked to the GIS.
The Solution
After researching, meetings, and multiple demonstrations of various software options, the City of Grand Rapids selected Cityworks as the asset management system best suited to fit their needs. The City chose to deploy Cityworks through self-implementation and began in late 2006. Azteca provided configuring tools for self-implementation that made the transition comparatively simple, showing how truly user-friendly the software is. Grand Rapids began using Cityworks to track stormwater reporting and set up the system to track employee data. Soon after, they began tracking work orders for snowplowing.
Results
The department quickly realized the many benefits of easily accessible work orders, becoming even more evident when it came time to file the City’s MPCA Stormwater System report. Budget cost analyses were improved as administration began accurately creating reports to provide to the City Council through Cityworks. Using data from Cityworks, the City developed an automated timesheet and invoice reporting system that now saves valuable hours for field crew members from having to accurately describe and report their time each two-week pay period. It has also greatly increased work efficiency for administration staff in producing invoice reports and accurate accounting of time reporting.
“We are reaping the benefits of Cityworks and feel that we have only begun to scratch the surface,” states Michael LeClaire, GIS/CAD Technician at the City of Grand Rapids. “After seeing the demonstration of Cityworks and visiting a few other cities actively using the software, we knew that Cityworks would easily be able to solve our stormwater reporting issue. But the great thing about the software was that we could see where Cityworks would benefit other aspects of the Public Works Department, and it most certainly has.”
The City plans to expand their use of Cityworks in the future. One of the projects planned is to utilize AVL with street sweeping, enabling the City to track how often and how many times the streets get swept in the city. This data will benefit stormwater reporting and keep the public informed.
About Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is located in the northeastern part of Minnesota and is the county seat of Itasca County. Grand Rapids was named for the local rapids of the Mississippi River which, today, are hidden underneath the dam of the Blandin Paper Mill. The city was originally founded as a logging town as the Mississippi River provided an optimal method for shipping logs to population centers. Today, Grand Rapids is home to more than 9700 permanent residents and boasts an economy based on paper manufacturing, wood products, and tourism with many local resorts, golf courses, excellent regional hunting and fishing, and a large seasonal and weekend population with summer residences on surrounding lakes.
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