Briefs

And the winner is…

KLTV 8, Lakewood, Colo.’s government access television station, has received a first-place Excellence in Government Programming Award from the Vienna, Va.-based National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). The station received the award for its overall programming. The station also received an award from NATOA for its “Alameda Avenue Redevelopment” documentary.

Greensboro, N.C., has received the 2003 National Planning Award for Implementation from the American Planning Association, based in Chicago. The city was honored for its efforts to develop the Southside area, consisting of 10 acres and approximately 100 residences, including townhomes and single-family homes.

The Purchasing and Supplies Division of the Allegheny County (Pa.) Department of Administrative Services has received the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the Henderson, Nev.-based National Purchasing Institute. The division was honored for its use of e-commerce, electronic bidding and reverse auctions.

The following agencies have received a 2002 Gold Award for Competitiveness Achievement from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, based in Washington, D.C.: Boca Raton (Fla.) Utility Services Department; Butler County (Ohio) Department of Environmental Services; Fort Wayne (Ind.) City Utilities; Henderson (Nev.) Department of Utility Services; Honolulu Board of Water Supply; Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering — Water Production Branch; JEA, Jacksonville, Fla.; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department; Minneapolis Water Works; Nashville (Tenn.) Metro Water Services; Newport News (Va.) Waterworks; Norfolk (Va.) Department of Utilities; Santa Clara (Calif.) Valley Water District; Scottsdale (Ariz.) Water Resources Department; and Tempe (Ariz.) Water Utilities Department. The utilities were honored for overall efficiency, cost of operation and quality of service.

The Minneapolis Community Development Agency (MCDA) has received a Meritorious Achievement Award from the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies. MCDA received the award for providing funding for Portland Village, a multifamily housing development completed in December 2001. The complex, which is targeted toward families with members who are recovering substance abusers, features 26 units, 22 of which are affordable to households making less than 30 percent of the area median income.

Kissimmee (Fla.) Utility Authority (KUA) has received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association. KUA received the award for its 2001 comprehensive annual financial report.

Company news

Huntsville, Ala.-based Intergraph has agreed to acquire Oberkochen, Germany-based Carl Zeiss Group’s minority interest in Z/I Imaging. With the transaction, Intergraph, already the majority owner of Z/I, will assume complete ownership of the firm. Z/I will merge with Intergraph’s Mapping and GIS Solutions division to provide remote sensing, photogrammetry and GIS/mapping services to national, state and local governments, photogrammetric mapping firms and commercial customers in a variety of industries.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble and Montreal-based Microcell Connexions have reached a wholesale agreement that allows Trimble to offer wireless fleet and mobile resource management services in Canada and the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, Microcell will provide Trimble with wireless connectivity to its GSM/GPRS network in Canada and the United States through T-Mobile USA, Microcell’s roaming partner.

Orlando, Fla.-based PBS&J has acquired Atlanta-based Durham Technologies, a firm that develops analytical methodologies for risk measurement, modeling and management. The transaction complements PBS&J’s creation of a Risk Management Division.

Gardiner, Maine-based Blue Marble Geographics has created a software development division. The department, called Blue Marble GIS Development, will create custom GIS applications in the areas of image georeferencing, image reprojections, coordinate conversion, image and map file display, vertical transformations, and GPS data integrations.

Baton Rouge, La.-based The Shaw Group has formed Shaw CMS. The subsidiary will provide security products and consulting services.

Essen, Germany-based Ruhrgas Industries has completed its acquisition of the Global Metering Division of Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB. The global name for the combined company will be Elster Metering. In the United States, the company’s water meter division will operate as AMCO Water Metering Systems.

North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold has acquired Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Data Information Management Systems (DIMS), a provider of voter registration systems. The acquisition complements the services offered by Diebold Election Systems, which include voter outreach, poll-worker training and vote tabulation.

Getting there

San Marcos, Calif., has contracted with San Diego-based Berryman & Henigar to provide construction management and inspection services for its Rancho Santa Fe Road project. The project, which includes widening the road from two to four lanes, is slated for completion this spring.

The Chicago Transit Authority has contracted with Anniston, Ala.-based North American Bus Industries to provide 25 low-floor CompoBuses. The buses are each 45 feet long.

Sacramento County, Calif., has contracted with Kansas City, Mo.-based HNTB to design an airport lighting control and monitoring system at Sacramento International Airport. The system will incorporate two airfield lighting vaults, monitoring for low-visibility operations and touch screen controls in the airport traffic control tower. The system also will accommodate future Category III operations at the airport. Construction will begin this spring.

Broward County, Fla., has contracted with San Francisco-based URS to provide program management services for an expansion of the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The expansion includes the construction of an international terminal.

Wildwood, Mo., has contracted with St. Louis-based Horner & Shifrin to design a pedestrian bridge over Highway 100. The bridge will connect a series of bicycle and pedestrian bridges.

If you build it

West Lampeter (Pa.) Township has hired Conshohocken, Pa.-based Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site to design a $5.5 million municipal complex that will include administrative offices and police headquarters. The complex is slated for completion in 2004.

Camden, N.J., has contracted with New York-based Vollmer Associates to design site improvements for the rehabilitation of Staley Park. Vollmer will perform a topographic survey and site analysis of the park, which contains baseball fields, a playground, a picnic area and a basketball court. Construction will begin this spring.

One man’s trash

Forth Worth, Texas, has contracted with Fairfax, Va.-based Gershman, Brickner & Bratton to negotiate contracts for waste collection, processing and disposal services. The partnership will oversee the city’s requests for municipal solid waste collection, single-stream recyclables collection, and brush and yard waste collection.

Plugged in

Akron, Ohio, has contracted with Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola to provide a customer service request system that will automatically route residents’ calls to the appropriate departments.

White Plains, N.Y., has purchased software from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada-based Municipal Software. The city will use the program to automate its Building Department business processes.

Whitfield County, Ga., has contracted with Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Sanborn to provide black-and-white digital orthophotos and GIS services for the 290-square-mile county. The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2004.

Kanawha County, W.Va., has contracted with St. Louis-based Government e-Management Solutions to provide 16 financial and human resource software programs.

Fairburn (Ga.) Utilities has contracted with Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based Harris Computer Systems to provide billing and customer service software.

Stanislaus County, Calif., has purchased WorkSite MP software from Foster City, Calif.-based iManage. The county will use the software to manage the electronic documents of several county agencies, ranging from the Justice Department to the Mental Health Department.

Eau Claire, Wis., has contracted with Milwaukee-based eMapping Solutions to provide GIS services. The company will update the city’s parcel map file.

DeKalb County, Ga., has contracted with St. Paul, Minn.-based EMA to help upgrade the county’s Wide Area Network (WAN). EMA will provide network analysis, design services and project management for the upgrade, during which the county’s WAN will move from leased cable lines to an in-house infrastructure.

Reading, Pa., has purchased CIS Solution software from Sacramento, Calif.-based Hansen Information Technologies. The city will use the software to bring its water billing in-house and to simplify billing for its trash, recycling and sewer services.

Berlin, Wis., has retained Brookfield, Wis.-based R.A. Smith & Associates to integrate the city’s storm-mapping data with the city’s GIS.

Bolingbrook, Ill., has contracted with St. Charles, Ill.-based Sidwell to provide photogrammetric services. The firm will take aerial photographs of the village and create digitial orthophotography of the area.

Fayette County, Pa., has purchased MUNIS Fund Accounting Application Software from Gibsonia, Pa.-based Software Systems. The county will use the software to integrate its general ledger, budgeting and accounts payable modules with general billing.

Lucas County, Ohio, has contracted with Parsippany, N.J.-based Acuent to install software from Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft. The software will create an integrated system for payroll, benefits and accounting functions.

Safe at home

The Chaska (Minn.) Fire Department has purchased a fire truck from Tampere, Finland-based Bronto Skylift.

Fort Collins, Colo., and Larimer County, Colo., have contracted with Tiburon, the public safety unit of Hanover, Md.-based CompuDyne, to provide an integrated computer-aided dispatch, records management and jail management system.

Smooth operating

Minneapolis has contracted with Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys to manage the city’s IT infrastructure. The seven-year contract is worth approximately $56 million.

The Finney County (Kan.) Public Library has contracted with Germantown, Md.-based Library Systems & Services to manage its operations. The two-year contract began in January.

Water, water everywhere

Delta, Ohio, has contracted with Palm Desert, Calif.-based USFilter to build a continuous microfiltration 4x48M10C system and a reverse osmosis unit. The new two-stage membrane system, slated for completion by the end of 2003, will replace the village’s surface water lime-soda softening system.

Chicago has contracted with Chesterfield, Mo.-based Insituform Technologies to repair sewer lines in Chicago’s South Side. The project involves the rehabilitation of 1,100 feet of 9′ × 9′ semi-elliptic sewer lines and 340 feet of 10.5′ × 10.5′ semi-elliptic sewer lines. Completion is slated for June 2003.

Toledo, Ohio, has contracted with Kansas City, Mo.-based Black & Veatch to provide program management and design services for a 15-year capital improvement program that will bring Toledo’s wastewater and combined sewer systems into compliance with federal and state regulations. The company will provide system-wide monitoring and modeling; develop a system-wide, long-term control plan; design improvements to abate combined sewer overflows; and upgrade the Bay View wastewater treatment facility.

Etc.

Middlesex, N.J., has retained Manalapan, N.J.-based Schoor DePalma to develop a master site plan for the renovation and expansion of Victor Crowell Park. The company will evaluate the existing 20-acre facility and an adjacent three-acre site.

Baltimore has contracted with Quincy, Mass.-based CitiStreet to administer the city’s 457 deferred compensation plan. The company will provide record keeping, administration, customer service, on-site enrollment, and communication and education for the plan, which has approximately $200 million in assets.

Orlando, Fla., has contracted with Atlanta-based Boyken International to provide construction cost estimates and other consulting services for a variety of public works projects. Under the terms of the two-year contract, Boyken will provide construction estimates for projects to help the city evaluate bids.

The court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, Pa., has contracted with Boulder, Colo.-based BI to provide monitoring technology for offenders on house arrest. The company tracks offenders and reports any arrest violations to local officials.

Cypress, Calif., has contracted with Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based LA Consulting to evaluate the maintenance operations of the city’s Public Works Department. The department maintains sidewalks, traffic signals and sewer lines.