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Lewiston staff showcase GIS and Cartograph tools; council asks about access and next steps
Summary
City engineer Luke presented the city’s GIS and Cartograph asset-management work, describing 59,000 assets tracked, automation and interdepartmental use; councilors asked about public and council access and how assets tie to services.
Lewiston’s city engineer gave a detailed demonstration April 7 of the city’s geographic information system (GIS) and Cartograph asset-management platform, telling the council the tools support cross-department workflows, preventative maintenance and long-term cost forecasting.
Luke Yantanich, city engineer, said the city currently manages roughly 59,000 assets — from water valves and sewer manholes to pavement segments — and has created more than 500 automations to capture workflows. He described Cartograph (an OpenGov product) as the backbone of citywide asset data, used by public works, community development, facilities and parks to plan and track inspections, repairs and capital work.
Yantanich demonstrated a “kitchen sink” interactive map that layers utilities, parcels, zoning and other data and showed an app that translates approved development permits into polygons that feed inspections and “as-built” records. He said the system integrates nine departments and multiple software systems and supports life-cycle cost calculations so leadership can see both near-term spending and projected long-term maintenance costs.
Councilors asked whether council members and the public can access the system. Yantanich said staff can arrange access to the public-facing map and that internal staff portals contain additional layers for security reasons. He and staff suggested the kitchen-sink map would be the most useful view for councilors and the public.
Councilor questions also probed whether assets are tied to services (for example, water meters tied to household service) and whether the city can query incidents such as water-main breaks. Yantanich said assets are organized by service category (streets, water, sewer, etc.) and that Cartograph allows filtering by asset type (hydrants, meters, pipes) and querying of tasks and incident counts.
Funding and timeline: Yantanich said GIS and asset management are funded through enterprise funds, the transportation fund and the MPO (metropolitan planning organization). He outlined a strategic, multi-year plan to mature data quality, technology, applications and public engagement. He showed a time-lapse of thousands of tasks completed in Cartograph from 2020 to early 2025 to illustrate staff activity and adoption.
Why it matters: Councilors and staff said improved asset tracking makes maintenance more proactive, reduces errors and can support smarter budgeting and grant-seeking. Councilors requested staff to share access details with all council members and to coordinate with the clerk to distribute login or viewing instructions.
Next steps: Staff to provide council with instructions for accessing the kitchen-sink app and to continue maturing integrations between permitting systems and asset records.
