NORWICH – During the City of Norwich joint committee meeting that followed the special Common Council meeting Tuesday night, Department of Public Works Superintendent Carl Ivarson appeared before the committees to discuss vehicle tracking and maintenance of the city's fleets.

Ivarson said the city currently spends $18,000 per year over five departments on vehicle maintenance alone, and some of that could be prevented by employing vehicle tracking and maintenance of the city's vehicles.

Ivarson said the technology would provide computerized results allowing each department to know where each vehicle is at a given time, how fast it is going, how long it has been idling, and more. Ivarson said this technology could be especially useful as part of the city's snow removal duties.

"The biggest part of this, what I think the important part is, is the tracking of our maintenance," said Ivarson.

Ivarson said that by cutting back on something as simple as city vehicles unnecessarily idling, the city could save over $2,000 a year.

Alderman Ward 5 David Zieno asked if this tracking would include police vehicles, given a scenario where an officer isn't immediately responding to the desk sergeant and may be in a dangerous situation. Ivarson said yes.

Mayor Christine Carnrike said she has researched similar services in a different capacity, and asked Ivarson if some services are more effective in monitoring tracking than maintenance and vice versa. Ivarson said yes, and that it would be in the city's best interest to find a service that provided both, although his main goal is improving maintenance.

Ivarson suggested that the city put a tracking and maintenance service request out to bid as there are several companies that provide it.

The Public Safety/Public Works and Finance/Personnel Committees agreed with Ivarson, subsequently giving him permission to put the request out to bid.