During what had to be a record for shortest council session in the past few years, Cochrane councillors approved spending $50,000 on new software that will streamline the process of safety codes permitting and inspections.
Mike Korman, economic development manager for the Town of Cochrane, said the town was faced with a 22.5 per cent increase in permits and inspections from 2013-14, processing over 4,300 permits and conducting 6,700 inspections, all using a manual, paper-based process.
With the manual method for issuing a permit taking around an hour to complete, Korman said it would take roughly 5,000 man hours to complete the estimated 5,000 permits requested in 2014, and without the purchase of the new software, hiring a full-time employee to assist with the workload may be necessary.
“It’s important to get these efficiencies happening in this area,” said Paige Milner, Cochrane’s senior manager of corporate services.
Korman said $50,000 was the average cost for this type of software, and that it would also cost around $5,000 a year to maintain the software, a cost Korman said would be recouped from not having to purchase $5,400 in red and green folders for the manual process.
Korman also pointed out that the town had exceeded its estimated revenue from permit and inspections for the year, garnering $1.6 million, $500,000 more than was previously forecasted.
Council endorsed an application for the Alberta Community Partnership grant for the purpose of assisting the Rocky View Regional Handibus Society with the costs of replacing its aging fleet.
The approval is through a collaborative partnership between the town, Rocky View County, Beiseker, Chestermere, Crossfield and Irricana for the purpose of making the application to the province in the amount of $350,000.
The grant request is specific to upgrading the Handibus’ fleet, not an endorsement for, nor to be utilized toward any increase to capacity or expansion of the service at this time.
