Title
Gainesville Urban Area Storm Sewer Mapping Conversion Project (B)
This item involves the purchase of data conversion services between the City of Gainesville and Jones Edmunds and Associates, Inc., a business currently under the Public Works Department's existing contract for Water Resource Engineering Services. The project cost is $128,000. This project fulfills requirements of the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit.
Explanation
The Public Works Department is responsible for administering National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits required by the Clean Water Act. The Department has been collaborating with Alachua County and the Florida Department of Transportation programmatically and financially since 2003 to meet requirements of these regulations. One requirement of the NPDES permit is to obtain or create a map of the storm sewer system in the Gainesville Urban Area.
The Public Works Department has been working since the initiation of their NPDES Permit in July, 2003 to fulfill this requirement. Instead of relying on paper maps, the City has created a Geographic Information System (GIS) to house existing and collected data. An element of building this GIS involves the conversion of historic paper construction plans to digital format. Of many methods used to create the GIS, City staff has concluded that this method is very time efficient and effective. This project will convert approximately 3,000 historical paper sheets to a GIS.
The resulting product will further refine the Public Works Department's spatially correct database and map of the storm sewer system which is an important component of the City's environmental goals of providing planning and engineering services that support the functionality and improvement of the City's drainage systems. The data will also provide tools that will eventually assist the City in tracing pollutant loads to comply with Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements.
Fiscal Note
Funding for the total project in the amount of $128,000 is available in the multi-agency supported NPDES partnership account administered by the City of Gainesville's Public Works Department.
Recommendation
Recommended Motion: The City Commission: 1) authorize the City Manager or his designee to issue a purchase order not to exceed $128,000 to Jones Edmunds and Associates, Inc. based on the scope of work dated January 2, 2008 as allowed under the existing contract for Water Resource Engineering Services.
Alternative Recommendation: The City Commission deny this request for purchase to the Department.