Washington will continue to pay Scott Bradbury from the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission to manage the geographical information system.

At their regular meeting Monday night, city officials approved a contract with the regional planning commission.

City administrator Bob Morris said, Shawn Christ kept the computerized mapping program current prior to his resignation several years ago.

The system allows the city to keep a computerized record of the whole city, Morris said.

“It gives us the ability to do planning from our desks,” Morris said, adding that the system keeps track of lot lines, streets, water mains, sewer mains and storm sewer mains.

City personnel can use GIS for zoning, engineering and building permits.

“It is a great database of the city,” Morris said.

Although the system can map property lines, it can only give an estimate, Morris said, adding that property owners still need to have a survey done or find the corner pins with a metal detector to determine the actual property lines.

Because of a backlog of data, the city agreed to hire Bradbury part-time.

“(The city) purchased 830 hours of Scott’s time,” Morris said.
He added that the city decided to forego a full-time person because of the expense.

“Scott is helping us get caught up,” Morris said. Bradbury has been out in the field verifying the accuracy of the information and busy loading new data including updated ariel photos, he added.

New city hall
Council members also approved moving forward with the architectural study by Architectural Design Group on the former library building.

The city has until mid-September to approve the purchase of the library building for $251,501.

“Things are progressing well,” Morris said.

Survey work, an environmental study and investigation of asbestos, lead and mold were completed and did not reveal any concerns.

Morris said the city budgeted $750,000 for the purchase, remodeling and furnishing of the library for use as city hall.

“We are trying to pin down,” Morris said, “if it can be done within the budgeted amount.”

The city plans to use the former library to house city offics.
If approved, city offices will move to the first floor of the library. The basement level will be used for storage.

Policing operations will then expand into the first floor of the current city hall.

The library building on Walnut Street has been for sale since the library moved to its new home in Five Points Washington.