So, you’ve successfully implemented your new permitting system. The software is live, organizational workflows and calculations have been added, and office and field staff are fully on board. But what do you do with historical...

The City of South Bend, Indiana, manages 700 miles of sanitary and storm sewers and 10,000 catch basins, inlets, and drains through its Department of Public Works Office of Sewers. For years, the department relied...

Making long-term plans while also managing day-to-day operations is hard. There’s always something competing for your time. By collecting relevant data along the way, you can help make strategic planning easier. The City of Topeka...

Over the course of the last decade, municipal governments have increasingly turned to IT consolidation as a means of reducing costs while also improving service delivery. For many organizations, IT consolidation means the re-centralization of...

As leaders of public municipalities, we often compete with private entities on many levels. When providing services such as recreation centers, cemeteries, golf courses, and entertainment venues, there is a persistent need to stay close...

The City of Topeka, Kansas, like many local governments, is in the midst of a data renaissance. For many years, we were collecting and creating data—and that’s where the story ended. Systems became data dumping...

The flush of a toilet. The whirlpool in a sink drain. The channel of rainwater disappearing underground. Wastewater and stormwater infrastructure plays a critical role in the health and safety of our communities, but we...

Originally published in Civil + Structural Engineer, February 2018 How municipalities prepare for natural disasters has become much more than distributing sandbags, providing emergency shelter, and assembling personnel and services to assist those in need....

Not all assets are created equal. We know that physical assets degrade over time. As assets deteriorate, operation and maintenance costs increase, and customers experience negative impacts. At some point, all municipalities and utilities must...

The Village of Arlington Heights is a progressive and vibrant community nestled in the outskirts of Chicago. But don’t let the classification of “village” fool you—with a population of more than 75,000 and growing, Arlington...