Kincadine’s winter maintenance vehicles are going high-tech.
Town council recently approved a plan that will see the installation of GPS equipment on some of its snow plows.
Public works manager Jim O’Rourke admits part of the reason for the move to the equipment is being driven by the insurance companies and the courts.
He says if an accident should happen on a plowed road and the town is threatened with liability, courts now are demanding information such as what time was the plow on the road, how long did the plowing take, was the blades up or down and were the sanders in operation.
O’Rourke says GPS equipment can provide that information on a daily basis with simple downloading at the end of a day.
O’Rourke says this winter, the system will be in effect in Wards 1 and 2 only since the base station will be in Ward 1.
He says Ward 3 will be added at a later date.
He says there will be one plow truck each in wards 1 and 2 and one sidewalk plow that will be equipped.
O’Rourke says the plow operator will have no control over the information that is being downloaded.
He says he’s talked to his workers about the plan and he believes they’re in favour of trying it out.
O’Rourke says once the initial outlay of money is made to purchase the equipment there is no other costs associated with the program.
He says there are no licensing fees and no on-going maintenance fees.
This year’s costs will be just over 56 hundred dollars with the money coming from the proceeds of the auctioning of redundant equipment.
He says to equip the remainder of the fleet in 2012 would cost about 15 thousand dollars.
