During Covid, the federal government supplied help to the country’s towns and cities by distributing funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These funds enable municipalities to maintain or improve their infrastructure and technology, among other categories. Granby received a total of $3,405,503.38.
The Town of Granby published a preliminary project list of 35 items in May 2022. The list was developed after much input from the town’s various boards, commissions and departments. The requests for allocations were required to be submitted to ARPA by the end of 2024, and the funds are to be spent by the end of 2026. As of Aug. 15, seven of the dozen or so most critical projects have been completed.
One of the first priorities was to update the town’s Geographic Information System (GIS), which had not been done in 10 years. The GIS is important to the town in many ways. According to Director of Community Development Abby Kenyon, the town maintains a parcel database in the GIS that shows property lines, topography, wetlands boundaries, zone boundaries, sewer line locations, FEMA flood hazard areas, catch basins and building locations. From this data, the staff can create maps that provide accurate measurements and allow visualization of various types of projects.
An example of such usage occurred in the spring when the Planning and Zoning Commission was considering changes to the Neighborhood and Commercial Transition Zone. The Community Development Department used the GIS to create a series of maps showing setback distances and buffers to help in the decision-making.
Also, during the summer, the Public Works Department used GIS to map the location of the town’s catch basins to comply with the federally mandated Municipal Stormwater Program (MS4.) Public Works uses this map to set benchmarks establishing the time when a basin cleaning is necessary, based on the direction of flow (also readable from the map) and the amount of sediment accruing. Some basins need to be cleaned every year and others perhaps every two or four years. This information is now available online rather than by on-site inspection. It is also important in times of catastrophic weather events to know the location of all the town’s catch basins.
In addition to P & Z and Public Works, the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission and any developer planning to build a house or other structure can easily find answers to questions by using the GIS available online.
The GIS update has been completed using the $10,890 of allocated ARPA funds.