CHENEY – It’s no ordinary van.
At its Oct. 13 meeting, the City Council approved a request by the Public Works Department to spend $172,530 on a 2018 Ford E450 14-foot box van from Solid Waste Systems in Spokane. While the van itself isn’t necessarily expensive, what comes inside is – a complete camera and recording system that will allow crews to peer inside the city’s solid waste system and determine its condition.
The system includes not only monitors, recording devices and control panels but also a tractor-like camera unit that can be inserted into sewer pipes. Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the van functions by parking over sanitary sewer manholes and inserting the tractor and camera unit into the pipe system.
“It will actually take videos, and it has a rotating head to take a look at the conditions of the pipe,” he added.
While the primary use for the van is to look at the conditions of the city’s pipes, it can also serve to seek out leaks in the system so crews can mark these for future repair.
The van is being purchased through a source contract with SWS and was included in the 2020 budget. Ableman said they had offered the city’s existing 1994 camera van as a trade-in, but was declined by SWS. The City Council subsequently marked the 1994 van as surplus, and Ableman said he thinks they have a buyer for the unit.
Also at the Oct. 13 meeting, council approved a $2,292 request from the Fire Department to purchase mobile response fire and EMS software from Streetwise CADLink. Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said the department had been using a hand-held application called Active 911 for a number or years that provided dispatch information and other data about calls and routes to firefighters phones. Streetwise is a new company that many jurisdictions in the county are now using because it provides more detailed information that can be shared, information the department collects about its hydrants, building schematics, pre-fire plans and other data.
The software, while more expensive than other programs, can be loaded on the department’s four tablets received when the city took possession of the new main attack engine it bought from General Fire. It can also provide real-time views on how units are proceeding on fire responses.
“For a little bit more money they’re offering a lot more that you can do with the program,” Jenkins said.
Finally, council approved a $14,250 appropriation from the Light Department to purchase three overhead doors for the Utility Building from Continental Door Company of Spokane Valley. The appropriation covers replacing two 12x14-foot doors and one 14x14-foot door.
The department replaced two 14x14-foot doors at the Utility Building in 2017, with Continental doing the work.
“Continental also provides our service and maintenance and we’ve been satisfied with them and satisfied with the doors installed in 2017,” Light Department Director Steve Marxx said.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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