Board will elect new Tree Board, Library board members
Brentwood Home Page staff reports
A proposal to shoot three-dimensional aerial photography of the entire city and ratifying the emergency purchase of a video system for one of the city's busiest intersections tops tonight's Brentwood City Commission meeting -- the first of 2012 and first following a six-week break.

First, west Brentwood commuters, Brentwood middle and high school families and others who travel through the Franklin Road and Murray Lane intersection apparently are already benefitting from the “emergency purchase” of a new traffic signal video detection system for the traffic signal that the board will ratify tonight.

Recently, the 10-year-old video system at the intersection began working intermittently, preventing signal controllers from adjusting the lights regardless of actual traffic patterns.  

With the detection system problems, staff had to visually monitor the intersection every morning and remotely manipulate the signal to allow traffic turning left from Franklin Road onto Murray Lane to flow adequately and avoid larger traffic delays along the Franklin Road corridor.

City Manager Mike Walker outlined the issue at the commission’s Dec. 6 meeting and authorized the $13,475 purchase last month in order for it to be installed by the time nearby schools were back in session following their winter break.

The commission is expected to authorize an agreement with Pictometry International Corporation to conduct a comprehensive aerial photography update for the city’s Geographic Information System. The photos would include traditional overhead as well as oblique photography that captures images at an angle (using five cameras instead of one) that reveal greater detail, giving users three dimensional views of an image.

The photos and information are used “for effective public safety, planning, codes and utilities service delivery by city personnel,” according to information attached to the meeting’s agenda. With oblique photography, users can see the front door of a house, the back door, the windows and more.

The last aerial photography contracted by the city was in 2009, and historically the city has maintained a three-year schedule for updating. City staff is recommending a joint project with the City of Franklin, which will lower the cost per-square-mile flown. The cost is $33,032.50.

The aerial photography is the first phase of the GIS mapping update.  After that is updated, the city will ask for bids to select a firm to map the GPS coordinates for all building footprints, impervious areas, streets and sidewalks.

The city’s fiscal year 2012 Capital Improvements Plan includes a total of $165,000 in funding for the GIS mapping update with funds being split between the Capital Projects Fund ($110,000) and the Water and Sewer Fund ($55,000).

For the action on Monday’s agenda, $22,021.67 would come from the Capital Projects Fund and $11,010.83 from the Water and Sewer Fund.

In other business, the commission is expected to adopt new agreements with three different companies to continue its ongoing Sewer Rehabilitation Program.

The board will also vote on one new member of the Library Board and three members to the Tree Board.

Four residents have applied to fill the Library Board seat previously held by Linda Gnass who has moved. The unexpired term ends June 30, 2013. Applicants are Janet Donahue, Dottie Grief, Suzanne Smith-May and Carl Thorman.

Six people, including incumbent Lynn Tucker, have applied to serve two-year terms on the newly renamed and expanded Tree Board. They are Tim Honeck, Tim Lawyer, Daniel McHugh, Kate Meyer, Simon Riss and Tucker.   

The meeting takes place in the second-floor board room at the Brentwood Municipal Building, 5211 Maryland Way.

Click here to access the full agenda and related documents.