Updated 11:51 a.m. Jan. 3, 2017 to better reflect the nature of DANC's system and involvement.

By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON -- The village is considering contracting for an asset management program to better track maintenance and replacement schedules of vehicles, equipment, streetlights, water and sewer lines, buildings, and even trees.

The aim is to save taxpayers money and help promote development and growth, said Mayor Michael Dalton.

“It’s a planning tool that if implementation is done right will be useful long after I’m gone, long after the current trustees are gone,” Dalton said.

“It would take a lot of things we’ve done already in our five-year plans, with roads and streets and sidewalks, all together in a format to use year after year, and update it year after year, with a global view,” Dalton said.

“We’ve even done a tree survey, all on village rights-of-way and on village property,” he said. When that data is plugged into the database they would be able to take into account condition and life cycle information that could be used to maintain the landscape more effectively.

All together, he said, the system could be a tool for working on budgets and other community plans “to set us on a sustainable path.”

Municipalities have been building such databases since before there were things called databases. But this one promises to be more comprehensive than ever before and will include information on age, condition, maintenance and replacement schedules, and other features that will aid in making budgets in the short term and also in long-term planning.

Dalton said the system could be a tool to help with grant applications “that makes finding funding for some projects a little bit easier. It shows you’re doing the work to plan for the future. This will help us stay out in front” of problems.

“We want to be able to not just react to emergencies,” he said “We’ll still have emergencies,” but tools like this could show where weaknesses are and make emergencies less frequent and less severe.

Carrie Tuttle, director of engineering for the Development Authority of the North Country, made a presentation at the village board meeting Monday on what DANC can do to help establish the database and set up the system.

DANC would deliver regular reports to the village. The village would have ther ability to update the database.

Dalton said the board is looking at a plan from DANC that would supply what the village wants for $10,000 for the base system, with additional cost for options such as a module for the street lights owned by the village (not to exceed $1,000), for sidewalks and curbs ($1,900), and streets (($2,400). The mayor said there are discounts on multiple modules and that any plan accepted by the board would not exceed $14,500.

“Data acquisition and plan development would be provided in a way where we can update as we go along,” Dalton said.

Dalton seems sold on the plan.

“It’s a really great planning tool. There is good value to be had out of this. The board will continue discussion but it appears they are generally supportive,” he said.

There will be a draft contract with DANC on the agenda for the Jan. 16 board meeting.

“Infrastructure is a key player in economic development. If there’s an infrastructure problem or a lack of the ability to upgrade in a timely way, you have a problem with development, and certainly a problem with growth,” Dalton said.

“So many communities in the state and nationwide are in trouble because they haven’t really planned well for the future. I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far,” Dalton said, but “I believe this is a planning tool we need to have.”

“So much these days is data-driven, and we need to be as efficient as possible,” he said.