Abbeville Council funds continued GIS service, approves 360-degree asset survey

The Abbeville City Council on July 15 authorized steps to move a grant-funded geographic information system from setup to citywide use and approved a separate contract to collect 360-degree imagery for an electrical asset inventory. The council voted to authorize the mayor to sign an agreement with the Acadiana Planning Commission for ongoing GIS mapping and technology services, and separately approved a contract for 360-degree video data collection and electrical system asset identification.

Council members heard from Alicia Wilts of the Acadiana Planning Commission and Sarah Gary, who introduced the project, that the city’s DRA grant paid initial setup costs to convert paper and CAD records into spatial data and to deploy an online ESRI-based viewer. Wilts said the system includes public-facing apps for simple queries (for example, entering an address to find a council member), department dashboards and an integrated work-order tool that routes resident complaints to the appropriate staff, sends confirmation and closure emails and reduces duplicate entries.

John Hornsby, an engineering director with the firm transcribed as Fster Maker, described vehicle-mounted 360-degree cameras and machine-learning processing to identify street signs, poles, potholes and other assets, creating geo-referenced photos and video that can populate the city’s asset inventory. Hornsby said the data supports post-disaster assessments, 911 response and routine asset management.

On cost, staff said continuing the Acadiana Planning Commission service after the grant would be $30,000 annually plus $6,000 per department; the council approved the one-year commitment and said funding would come from sales tax funds. For the 360-degree video and asset identification contract, staff reported a $16,000 charge for the video run and $34,000 for the asset identification work, a $50,100 total for the preparatory system improvements; the council approved the work.

Council members emphasized accessibility during public comment: multiple members confirmed residents without internet could still report issues by phone and staff would enter reports into the system. Staff also noted the electrical department’s work-order data is already live in the pilot, with presenters citing 667 total work orders and 598 completed entries.

The council’s approvals allow the city to expand the GIS and work-order rollout to other departments and to import the 360-degree asset data into the GIS for pavement, signage and electrical asset management. Staff will return with implementation steps and budgeting details as departments are added.