By Elizabeth Reiss
Beacon reporter

Baltic is beginning to take steps toward implementing a Geographic Information System (GIS) to improve the management of city infrastructure.
GIS is a way of storing information in digital maps to make the maps more useful, and it can help the city save money.
It has the capabilities to manage all city data, and in Baltic, city officials say GIS will keep track of many aspects of city information, including water, sewer and street data that can be updated daily.
It also will keep city records organized, up-to-date and readily available, allowing city officials to quickly find information, such as which roads should be resurfaced next or how many times maintenance workers respond to a water main break.
“I think it will be very useful,” said City Finance Officer Elaine Hendrickson. “One example is street maintenance. It will be able to tell us block by block when each area was last surfaced.”
The GIS comes with a total cost of about $9,000.
As a first step in setting up the new system, the City Council last month approved $4,500 to have a city map drawn by engineers at Banner Associates, Inc., in Brookings and to provide training for city employees. The Council is expected to approve the remaining money this summer.
Once the map is completed, applications can be added to organize multiple sources of information so it can be viewed easily in one area.
The information can be accessed in separate layers, such as sewer lines, manholes, lots, city blocks or an aerial photo.
The layers also can be viewed combined together, said Steven Rames, GIS/survey department manager at Banner Associates.
A GIS can help save money, with hundreds of work hours saved by using the system, experts say.
“The cost benefit to putting together the GIS at the mapping stage right now is about one to one,” Rames said,
“Ultimately, it will return $4 for every $1 you put in. The more people that can access the data as they come in to do their job, the higher the cost benefit gets.”
Hendrickson said she is excited about what the system can do for keeping city records organized and available.
“It will improve our record keeping capabilities,” Hendrickson said. “It will allow us to deal with the ‘what if’ scenario, if we had to start over with new employees at City Hall, all the information about the city—records, history, maintenance updates, all our information— could be easily accessed.”