PIEDMONT – During its work session on Tuesday, the Piedmont City Council heard a presentation from OCV Communication Strategist Jay Baxter. Baxter presented the council options for a new mobile phone app for the city.
If the city agreed to a contract, Baxter said the process to build an app for the city would take approximately 6-8 weeks once information is collected.
“In that process, about halfway through, we’ll give you a beta version, so all of you can go through it and look at it, decide what’s good and what’s bad, what needs changed or if it’s perfect,” Baxter told the council. “Once you say yes, we submit it to the app stores. Apple takes about two days. Google takes about 12 days. In that process, we turn it to our marketing department. They create the marketing kit. We schedule app control panel training. So it’s about two weeks from the time you submitted it to being ready to roll it out.”
If the city agreed to a contract, the cost would be $12,420 up front for the first year, then $5,995 annually after that, which includes maintenance and support throughout the life of the app, and if other people need to be trained for the life of the app.
During the regular meeting, the council heard from Water, Gas and Sewer Superintendent Byrian Watts. Watts requested the council approve a new streaming current monitor. He presented the council with three quotes.
“We had our inspection in December. The current monitor we’ve got is not working, will not work and hasn’t worked in a while. They said we’ve got to do it now,” Watts said. “The cheapest (quote) is from Norman Sales Company ($10,775.00), which is in Birmingham. They’re also going to give us $1,000 off for our old equipment trade in.”
The council approved the quote from Norman Sales Company.
The council also approved a resolution declaring several vehicles and property to be listed as surplus items and listed on Gov Deals, and approved an $8,400 bid from Terrapin Creek Metal Works and Blasting for sandblasting and painting of columns at the Piedmont Civic Center.
Minutes from the previous meeting were also approved, as were bills for payment totaling $526,012.52.
In his closing comments, City Clerk Carl Hinton presented the council with his calculations on several options for the installation of new light poles at the Piedmont Sports Complex. He recommended the council let Shannon Corbitt of Corbitt Power and Light Utility Contractors in Albertville do the project, which sets 10 poles for $10,000.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15.