WESTFIELD _ The Finance Committee continues its review of the proposed 2014 fiscal year municipal budget at the South Middle School tonight.
The committee is slated to discuss the proposed budget for the Building, Public Property, Off-street Parking, Airport, Engineering, Council on Aging and the Veterans Services departments.
The session will be the second of five departmental review meetings slated by Chairman Richard E. Onofrey Jr., as the City Council prepares to vote on the $117 million budget.
Thursday night the Finance Committee tabled a $122,175 transfer within the storm water budget, moving the money from undesignated account to purchase of services. That issue was tabled because City Engineer Mark Cressotti was not present to explain how the money will be spent.
Cressotti, however, will be present tonight to discuss his department’s budget and could also answer committee questions on the storm water funding allocation.
Cressotti said this morning that this past winter the city hired a vendor, Golden Aerial Surveys of Newtown, Conn., to fly over the city and photograph structure in roads, as well as the entire city. The process is called aerial stereoscopic imaging and is typically done when there are no leaves on the trees.
“It’s been about 15 years since we last did this,” Cressotti said this morning. “With all of the construction work, the location of a lot of structures has changed.”
“The technology for a flyover is so much a better process than 15 years ago. It has a much higher resolution, so we get a better product,” Cressotti said. “What this $122,175 is being requested for is the next step in that process, the computer analysis of all of that photographic data, including storm water issues.”
“The City Council is proposing a single-rate structure that would replace the two rate structure we now have, one for residential property and one for commercial property,” Cressotti said. “The computer will evaluate data from this aerial stereoscopic imaging process to identify impervious surfaces that will be included in the stormwater management fee equation.”
The Finance Committee meeting is slated for 6:30 p.m. in the faculty area of the cafeteria.
