38 minute read
On the Road Again: Mount Desert
Mount Desert Island, Maine
Bar Harbor is the largest of the municipalities on Mount Desert Island, comprising nearly half of the island’s 10,535 year-round residents. (Shutterstock.com)
By RAY BALOGH| The Municipal
So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Genesis 4:16.
In directing his personal exile eastward, Cain might have inadvertently bestowed upon himself at least a symbolic gesture of redemption for his sins. He may very well have been the first person on Earth at that time to witness the hope of a new sunrise each morning.
Residents and visitors of the United States can experience a similar privilege on Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island, Maine, where at 1,528 feet above sea level, the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard, early risers can greet “the dawn’s earliest light” to reach the United States.
Mount Desert (pronounced by locals as “de-ZERT”) is the secondlargest island in the Northeast, behind Long Island, N.Y.
Cadillac Mountain is located within Acadia National Park, one of the Top 10 most visited parks in the country. The 49,052-acre park comprises about half of Mount Desert Island and portions of 16 smaller outlying islands.
Acadia was established by President Woodrow Wilson in July 1916 as Sieur de Monts National Monument and was redubbed Lafayette National Park in February 1919 as the first national park east of the Mississippi River. The current name of Acadia National Park was officially settled on in January 1929. The name Acadia derives from Arcadia, a region of Greece of which explorer Giovanni Verrazano was reminded when he sailed past the area in 1524.
Mount Desert Island was originally inhabited by the Abnaki Indians, who favored the temperate coastal weather on the island during winter before venturing further inland for hunting and fishing in the spring.
Sunrises haven’t been the only draw for visitors. The national park contains a stunning variety of natural features, including rocky coastlines, granite mountains, lakes, ponds, evergreens and a menagerie of wildlife, such as various species of wolf, beaver, deer, elk, grey seal, sea mink, raccoon, lynx and muskrat.
Visionary entrepreneurs George B. Door, known as the Father of Acadia National Park, and Charles W. Eliot, also instrumental in the park’s creation, worked tirelessly in the late 19th and early 20th century to preserve the land’s pristineness for posterity.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., an accomplished horseman, funded and developed 45 miles of meandering carriage roads throughout the island, always meticulously assuring the construction was compatible with the natural landscape of the area. The broken stone paths are still maintained by the National Park Service and the nonprofit organization, Friends of Acadia.
Decades earlier, rusticators, those who appreciated the primitive living condition on the island for their summer vacations, carved more than 100 miles of hiking trails and walking paths.
During the unprecedented financial profligacy of the 1880s and Gay Nineties, Mount Desert Island served as the summer home of such notable families as the Morgans, Fords, Vanderbilts, Carnegies and Astors, who built extravagantly lavish estates they called “cottages.”
Life was good for the upper-crusters for four decades, until the Great Depression and World War II scuttled much of that carefree lifestyle. The coup de grâce occurred in 1947 when a widespread fire destroyed many of the elegant estates.
Today the island hosts four modest municipalities with a collective year-round population of 10,535 and most of the park’s 3.5 million yearly seasonal visitors lodging further inland.
The summit of Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island, Maine, is where early-rise-and-shiners can view the first sunrays cast upon the United States. (Shutterstock.com)
Tremont is the smallest of the island’s towns, but no less rich in nautical history and milieu. (Shutterstock.com)
Jordan Pond House, located in Acadia National Park, is a popular stop for refreshments. One of the restaurant’s abiding traditions is serving afternoon tea with popovers in the outdoor dining area. (Shutterstock.com)
Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor, population 5,089, situated on the island’s northeast shore, is home to Cadillac Mountain. The town was settled in 1763, incorporated as Eden on Feb. 23, 1796, and renamed Bar Harbor on March 3, 1918.
Early industries included fishing, lumbering, shipbuilding and agriculture, particularly dairy farming.
The town served as a staging area for torpedo practice during World War II.
Mount Desert
Mount Desert, population 2,146, was incorporated in 1789. It consists of the middle third of the island and serves as the governing body of half a dozen distinct villages.
The municipality operates under a town manager and five elected selectmen. Full-time, year-round officials include the town clerk, police and fire departments, assessor, code enforcement officer, highway and sewer department, harbormaster and financial officer.
Southwest Harbor
Southwest Harbor, population 1,756, is located on the island’s southwestern side — known as “the quiet side”— and contains five villages within its boundaries.
Several boat companies operate their businesses in Southwest Harbor, and the U.S. Coast Guard maintains a multipurpose facility in town.
The Claremont Hotel, built in 1883, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tremont
Tremont, population 1,544, was settled in 1762 and incorporated as Mansel on June 3, 1848. Two months later, the town was renamed Tremont, French for “three mountains.”
By 1880, the town boast more than 2,000 residents and supported a sawmill, gristmill, shingle mill, shipyard and brickyard. Fishing and fish curing were also major industries.
Today, Tremont subsists largely on the tourist trade.
For more information, visit acadiamagic.com or visitacadia.com.
41%
Read how municipalities can protect themselves on page 18.
25 to 30 minutes
Members of the Dighton, Mass.,
Fire Department sometimes have to wait this long when submitting a report on the fire reporting system due to slow internet connections.
Learn how a new grant is improving Dighton’s fire and police departments’ internet on page 22.
1.7 million
One of Madison, Wis.’s, YouTube videos, titled “MFD Heavy Urban Rescue Team Assists with Rescue Following Plane Crash,” has 1.7 million views.
Read how Madison Fire Department is using the internet to find new recruits on page 30.
$100 million
Estimated cost of a threeyear, fiberoptic infrastructure project in Kenosha, Wis., that will provide high-speed, broadband internet to residents beginning in 2023.
Source: https://www.cbs58.com/news/kenosha-begins-3-year-100-million-fiberoptic -infrastructure-project-promises-faster-internet.
Focus on: Technology
20
The number of intersections used in Bellevue, Wash.’s, Leading Pedestrian Intervals pilot study. In these pilot areas, traffic cameras were used, which observed over 650,000 road users. The use of LPIs showed a 42% reduction in conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
Find out how Bellevue is using technology to meet its Vision Zero goals on page 26.
200
Approximate number of children who cross 109th
Avenue between Champlin Park High School and Jackson Middle School in Brooklyn Park, Minn., before and after school. The installation this year of a first-of-its-kind rectangular rapid flashing beacon, or RRFB, will help protect the kids who use that crosswalk: The beacon has been installed on the crosswalk sign and can be activated by just waving a hand in front of the button.
Source: https://ccxmedia.org/news/ brooklyn-park-deploys-latest-crosswalk-technology-near-champlin-park-hs/
70%
The output of leftover sludge at the Clarksville, Tenn., wastewater treatment plant will be reduced by almost three-quarters after installation is complete on new thermal dryers in 2024. The project is being undertaken so that the stench of leftover sludge will be eliminated for neighbors of the local landfill.
Source: https://clarksvillenow.com/local/ new-technology-coming-to-wastewater-treatment-plant-will-kill-stench-at-landfill/.
The rise of cyberattacks and what municipalities should do to mitigate them
By STACI REAFSNYDER | The Municipal
Phishing emails. Hacked systems. Ransomed files.
These terms have become all too familiar with reports all over the world from major news outlets. And, let’s not forget the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May 2021. Now, tensions are even higher, and the risk of a cyberattack on municipalities is more prevalent.
IBM Security’s “2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report” states the global average cost of a breach is $4.3 million. This is a 13% increase from years past — an all time high.
“Ransomware attacks are more expensive than average breaches at $4.54 million. Ransomware share of breaches increased 41% since 2021,” the report states. ABOVE: Ransomware isn’t geared toward physical harm, but typically focuses on a quick payday. If a hacker were to gain access to the network of a municipality, there are a lot of controls they could ransom. (Aslysun/Shutterstock.com)
But why hack a municipality? Ransomware isn’t geared toward physical harm, but typically focuses on a quick payday.
“Information is the new currency of the 21st century,” Chris Poulin, deputy chief
Chris Poulin
Frank Welder
technology officer (CTO) and director, technology and strategy at BitSight, said.
Poulin stated if a hacker were to gain access to the network of a municipality, there are a lot of controls they could ransom. For example, a municipality could no longer collect taxes, direct road repairs or pay city employees, such as the police and fire departments. Or, the hacker could gain access to the personally identifiable information (PII) of the taxpayer and individually target them for a quick payout.
According to Frank Welder, technical solutions architect in cybersecurity with Arrow Electronics, ransoming a municipality’s information would create havoc.
“Every municipality has a process. Think of the money disruption and how they (cities) use taxes to pay for road repairs, etcetera.” Welder said. “Quite literally the bad guys want to create a little bit of havoc and chaos.”
Welder pointed out if our governments are the ones to grant permits, what happens when that city doesn’t have the capabilities to do that?
“Will that slow down operations? Will that have an impact? And that’s what the bad guys are going for,” Welder said. “Cities receive money from us all the time: sales tax, property tax, licensing fees, all of those systems. What happens if the bad guys attack those systems and they deny municipalities access to the money that they need to repair the roads, to pay people, and things like that? Think about that type of disruption it would cause.”
In March 2018, Atlanta, Ga., was hit with a ransom of over $50,000. It took the city months to recover from. At the end, Atlanta paid out $2.6 million in incident response and data forensics to combat the ransomware attack.
“Though a municipality doesn’t have the specific obligations of a private company, it still has plenty of crucial considerations and costs. Atlanta’s ransomware attack impacted five of the city’s 13 local government departments and disrupted many functions people rely on every day, including the police department records system, infrastructure maintenance requests and the judicial system. The attack also hindered revenue collection; residents weren’t able to pay their water bills for day,” Wired.com states in its 2018 article “Atlanta Spent $2.6M to Recover from a $52,000 Ransomware Scare.”
According to Poulin, municipalities need to create one IT infrastructure for all the departments they oversee. By having one infrastructure, it creates consistency and guidance for the city’s information technology team and umbrellas every department in the municipality.
“It would be good to have consistency and guidance at a municipality level,” Poulin said. “But even more important is an information sharing analysis center.”
Poulin stated that an information sharing analysis center (ISAC) is a forum to discuss cyber issues, making everyone aware of who’s being attacked, how they’re being attacked, what the hackers are after and what an organization is using that is successful. There is also a more tactful side to an ISAC: Forensic information can be shared to prevent others from the same scenario.
“One thing that can complicate things is city, state and federal regulations,” Poulin said. “There are a crushing amount of regulations that everyone is subject to.”
For instance, if a city takes a credit card payment or anything like that, they are subject to PCI compliance, Poulin stated. Municipalities have a complex network of different departments that store different information — taxes, police department records, physicals for officers and fire personnel and so much more.
“Complexity is an enemy of cybersecurity,” Poulin said. “Complexity doesn’t only mean your architecture, but also means everything that goes on: how much data you store, where you store it, who has access to it.”
Knowing what compliance regulations your municipality falls under will also help in the development, implementation and execution of your IT infrastructure. For example, certain states have specific compliance requirements that others may not have, and those may apply to a city if it employs someone who lives in that state, or if it conducts business with a vendor from that state.
According to Welder, one key thing any municipality should have in place is a hardening of its framework.
“I always think of cybersecurity as building defenses,” Welder said. “We think of a castle. A castle is not just an individual structure. There’s the castle itself, and then there’s walls around that, and walls around that, and walls around that, and then a moat and maybe an open field. If you think about all of those layered defenses with that, if your mindset is that the hackers only need to be right once, I need to make sure that I have many things that they have to pass through to get into the network. Regardless of budget, how hard do municipalities need to make their network for those cybersecurity criminals to access the ‘crown jewels’? Hardening your network.”
Welder questioned, from a systems-andprocess perspective, have you hardened your environment? He stated the MITRE Framework perspective points out key areas where cities should harden their environment.
“In many instances, it’s all about keeping up with patches and plugging the holes. The bad guys aren’t creating new vulnerabilities; they are just exploiting existing ones. Harden your systems,” Welder said.
Hardening your network includes routine vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to see where those holes lie as well as patching known software bugs to ensure systems are operating with current, secure hardware.
Secondly, Welder said, cities need to monitor their networks with a single pane of glass that provides reporting for all the ebbs and flows. When you monitor the network, you can then see when abnormalities appear and investigate those abnormalities.
Vulnerabilities are public knowledge. These vulnerabilities are routinely published by the Internet Crime Complaint Center — as well as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — under the FBI. It doesn’t take a lot from a Cyberattacks continue to increase, presenting a challenge to municipalities that now need to ensure their systems are robust enough to keep attackers at bay. (NicoElNino/Shutterstock.com)
cybercriminal to figure out where a potential risk may lie in a network. By creating an all-encompassing IT infrastructure that adheres to compliance, while assessing risks and vulnerabilities, municipalities can work toward a strong cybersecurity foundation to protect their networks and the people they serve.
Dighton, Mass., police and fire connect through fiber
By DENISE FEDOROW | The Municipal
The Dighton, Mass., Police Department, 1458 Somerset Ave., also contains the 911 central dispatch for the town. The State Municipal Fiber Program grant will help give more efficient service for the police and fire departments. (Photo provided by Dighton, Mass.) Dighton has two fire stations, and each has its own internet service, as does the police department. This fiber optic grant will, among other benefits, combine the three internet services into one. Pictured is Dighton Fire Station No. 1, 300 Main St. (Photo provided by Dighton, Mass.)
We all know technology makes us more efficient—when it works right, that is; otherwise, it can frustrate.
That frustration is what the fire department of the town of Dighton, Mass., has been experiencing, but it is looking forward to that changing because of a $201,000 state Municipal Fiber Program grant awarded to the town this summer.
Town Administrator Mike Mullen said Dighton applied for the grant in early April. He said the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, made it a priority to “partner with cities and towns to help address local priorities—whether that is safety, infrastructure, financial planning, etc.”
This latest grant is a part of that priority. The grants are through the Baker-Polito administration’s Community Compact Cabinet program. Mullen said the town has received several grants through this Community Compact Cabinet program for economic development, updating and upgrading the IT infrastructure through the “same overarching grant opportunity.”
Mullen said the town didn’t hire an outside grant writer; instead, he and the police chief, the building commissioner/facilities director along with Southeastern Massachusetts region Taunton Municipal Light Plant—a utility and fiber optic internet provider—came together to write the grant. Mullen said the criteria they had to meet was showing a need.
“We just had to demonstrate a compelling need in regards to how we would utilize the expanded fiber,” and also to address how “based on our understanding of the challenges the fire department was having with the VPN (virtual private network)” to how having the fiber optic service would benefit the community.
Fire Chief Christopher Maguy explained the challenges his department experienced.
“Our records management system is based out of the police department where central dispatch is (located). The server is based there, and without a direct connection, it’s very slow, very frustrating.”
He said when members have to submit a report about a run on the fire reporting system that is used in Massachusetts and nationwide,
Town of Dighton Police Chief Shawn Cronin, shown with 911 liaison Theresa Costa, will also reportedly be happy with the streamlined service the fiber optic grant will provide the town’s public safety departments. (Photo provided by Dighton, Mass.) Town of Dighton Fire Chief Chris Maguy has experienced frustration with the unreliable and slow connections when trying to connect to the fire records management system. The fiber optic service should eliminate that frustration. (Photo provided by Dighton, Mass.)
“What should take five to 10 minutes is taking 25 to 30 minutes. This will expedite everything and make it less frustrating.”
Mullen said even before the grant opportunity came up, leadership shared those challenges that the fire department was having with getting out to the public safety computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system with Taunton Municipal Light Plant.
“Up to this point, they had to log into the VPN, which was sometimes unreliable and time-consuming,” he said.
According to Mullen, the grant will allow the town to have a shared and dedicated public safety fiber line for all three of the public safety buildings — the two fire stations and police stations, “plus we also envision the infrastructure will give us a promising opportunity for a foundation to connect all the municipal buildings on one dedicated fiber line.”
Mullen said, “We’re at the point of placing a strong priority on assessing and planning our infrastructure needs and the ability to have one dedicated public safety and municipal lines to address our municipal needs—this is a tremendous opportunity.”
Chief Maguy said the change can help improve the town’s safety by “improving the flow of information between each fire station and the police department and central dispatch, streamlining the information flow back and forth.”
He added each building had its individual internet provider, and this change will combine all the buildings into one provider. It will also be a cost savings for the town.
Timeline for the project
Mullen said, “As we speak, we’re in the process of finalizing the contract and scope of work between our community and Taunton Municipal Light Plant.”
Dighton expects to be under contract in October, and while the work will start before the end of the calendar year, most of it will take place in 2023.
“Once we’re under contract, contingent upon the winter weather, we expect it’ll take approximately eight months to build out,” Mullen said. “We view this opportunity and investment as the first step in creating and establishing a municipal-operated fiber link to support all town operations. Along with the dedicated public safety line, we’d have the ability to plan and implement (a line for) the rest of the municipal buildings, including the library, highway department, town hall and the Council on Aging.”
The fiber optic lines will be run on utility poles, “Here in Massachusetts, we’re slowly moving toward underground, but predominately, our utilities are all run on utility poles,” Mullen said.
Chief Maguy added, “On the poles, there’s municipal space dedicated to these kinds of functions.”
When thinking about their future technological goals, Chief Maguy said for the police and fire departments having one email server in town, instead of three, will enable them to build their public safety equipment and radio communications and allow them to reach other locations in town.
Mullen said with the town-run dispatch operations in the police station, it is really the hub of their technology service and having everything run through one service will streamline that.
When asked how the police chief felt, Chief Maguy said, “I believe he’s of the same opinion as me — the more streamlined both our operations are, the better for both of us for sending information back and forth.”
Mullen said, “Our police and fire departments have strong synergy in everything they do, and we believe this will only help to link those efforts and relationships.”
Dighton was one of more than 70 communities to receive the State Municipal Fiber Program Grant through the Baker-Polito Community Compact Cabinet to expand, upgrade or, like Dighton, initiate fiber optic service to their cities and towns.
Bellevue, Wash., launches goal of eliminating roadway injuries and fatalities
By NICHOLETTE CARLSON | The Municipal
The city of Bellevue, Wash., has spent the last seven years working to make its streets safer with the Vision Zero plan. The Bellevue City Council passed a resolution providing the framework to pursue Vision Zero in December 2015. Five years later, in December 2020, the council approved the Vision Zero strategic plan, which included the Safe System approach.
In order to reach Vision Zero, Bellevue adopted the belief that serious injuries and deaths on the road are not simply accidents, they are all preventable.
Franz Loewenherz, Bellevue’s mobility planning and solutions manager, explained, “Crashes result from a set of designs, infrastructure and systemic issues, not just road user behavior. This holistic approach accepts that people will make mistakes and that crashes will continue to occur, but it aims to ensure these do not result in serious injuries or fatalities. Stated simply, Vision Zero is the goal and the Safe System approach is how we get there.”
This Safe System approach focuses on safe streets, safe people, safe speeds and safe vehicles. According to Loewenherz, it also encompasses “the supporting elements of leadership, culture, partnerships and data. Bellevue recognizes that the way we design our streets, educate our road users and establish and enforce traffic laws can dramatically improve safety.”
Loewenherz continued, “The leadership strategy, nested within the city’s Safe System approach, states, ‘Commit all levels of the city to keep learning, refining our skills and expanding our toolbox with the best available strategies, policies and actions.’ The city of Bellevue adheres to this high performance organization commitment vis-a-vis its active involvement in multiple professional engineering forums and through collaborations ABOVE: Recently, Bellevue has tested a pilot program using Leading Pedestrian Intervals, which gives pedestrians the chance to enter the crosswalk before vehicles receive a green light. This makes the pedestrian more visible when crossing a roadway. The goal is to prevent accidents at street intersections, which accounts for 61% of pedestrian serious injuries and fatalities and 54% for bicyclists. (Photo provided by Bellevue, Wash.)
with technology companies. Bellevue is constantly learning and sharing with others. A priority in our Safe System approach is to share our successes with other communities so that we’re moving toward zero together.”
Using the Safe System approach, the city reviews historical trends, roadway features and proactive risk evaluations in order to provide city staff members with insights on potential problem areas and to identify appropriate countermeasures to help solve the problem. These solutions are prioritized to improve equitable, safe access to civic life for road users of all ages and abilities.
The city of Bellevue’s high injury network map shows the roadways with the greatest safety issues in need of intervention to keep residents, employees and visitors as safe as possible and move the city toward its goal of Vision Zero. Utilizing both the map and new technology, the city hopes to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities on roadways by 2030. (Photo provided by Bellevue, Wash.) Traffic control analytics, including cloud computing, video intelligence and artificial intelligence, provide quicker results in proactive safety techniques. The city of Bellevue has been partnering with multiple businesses over the years in order to adopt these proactive safety solutions more quickly. (Photo provided by Bellevue, Wash.)
Annual action plans are developed by Bellevue’s cross-department team to monitor the progess of Vision Zero and keep efforts on track to meet the city’s goal. Safe System actions are identified in the annual action plans, which is the duty of the city departments to implement throughout the year. These actions ensure the city’s residents, employees and visitors navigate the city’s roadways safely and comfortably with multiple options.
The role of technology is crucial in the city’s mission to prevent transportation-related serious injuries and deaths on roads and streets. Typically, crash data analysis is used to pinpoint areas and specific locations that may require intervention. However, crashes are random and police reports do not always state the full extent of safety issues experienced by those using the road. Therefore, an intervention analysis requires a minimum of five years of crash data.
For quicker results, Bellevue has adopted new technology with an emphasis on proactive safety techniques. “Traffic conflict analytics techniques that leverage cloud computing, artificial intelligence and video intelligence offer predictive insight into when, where and why crashes are most likely to occur at specific locations,” Loewenherz described. “The city of Bellevue is an early adopter and accelerator of these proactive safety techniques, having set in motion multiple technology development partnerships that convert raw video footage from our existing camera network into traffic flow, speed and conflict event data.”
From 2016 to 2018, the city partnered with Microsoft and the University of Washington for video analytics. The city then partnered with Transoft Solutions and Together for Safer Roads from 2019 to 2020. In 2020, the city partnered again with Microsoft as well as Jacobs and Advanced Mobility Analytics Group.
The most recent partnership began in 2022 and includes Amazon Web Services, Ouster, Outsight, Advanced Mobility Analytics Group, Blue-Band and Fehr and Peers. With these partnerships and new technologies, it only takes approximately one week for data collection as opposed to the traditional five years.
“In addition to identifying conflict hot spots, video analytics offers rapid insight on whether a safety countermeasure achieves a favorable outcome,” Loewenherz said. “Together we are exploring new safety metrics from lidar and video-based edge computer sensors at several downtown intersections. Additionally, we are exploring the potential of interfacing these sensors with the city’s adaptive traffic signals. Currently, the city’s signal system uses inductive loops buried in the pavement to detect vehicles and bicycles, then adjusts signal timing accordingly. The technology we’re developing with our partners offers the possibility of better detection of road users to increase the safety and minimize traffic delays, as well as lower costs by eliminating the need to maintain loops under city streets.”
In this most recent partnership, a before-and-after evaluation was conducted on the safety impacts of Leading Pedestrian Intervals. It has been shown in Bellevue the majority of serious injuries and fatalities occur at intersections, including 61% of pedestrian injuries and fatalities and 54% of bicycle injuries and fatalities. The LPIs give walking individuals the chance to enter an intersection crosswalk between three and seven seconds before vehicles are given a green light. This allows pedestrians to be more visible in the crosswalk before any vehicles have the opportunity to turn right or left. This is
especially important in Bellevue given that 41% of all pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries result from a failure to yield to pedestrians.
Using LPIs has been a proven countermeasure, promoting safety in the city of Bellevue. The city’s LPI pilot study included 20 intersections throughout the downtown and Crossroads areas. In these pilot areas, traffic cameras were used, which observed over 650,000 road users. Thus far, the use of LPIs shows a 42% reduction in conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
In 2022, the city teamed up with the Bellevue School District for six road safety assessments on streets near schools, which are considered part of the city’s “high injury network.” These few particular roads see the most fatal or serious injury collisions.
“A road safety assessment is a proven tool to identify safety issues, particularly for vulnerable travelers, such as people walking and bicycling,” Loewenherz stated.
As part of the road safety assessment, students, parents and other members of the neighborhood were invited to take an online questionnaire and participate in a walking audit. The walking audit included walking along the high-risk roads to identify potential safety issues or street conditions that could be considered unsafe.
“Results from the assessments will be used to make on the street safety improvements through city transportation projects,” he continued.
According to the World Health Organization, over 1.3 million people die each year from roadway crashes. Vision Zero has arisen as an Considered part of the high injury network of Bellevue, the Bellevue school district and city officials teamed up to participate in six road safety assessments. Pictured are city officials conducting one of these road safety assessments in Factoria, which helped identify potential safety issues along these high risk roads. (Photo provided by Bellevue, Wash.)
international movement to help lower those numbers. Utilizing new partnerships and technology, the city of Bellevue hopes to reach its Vision Zero initiative by 2030, eliminating serious injury collisions and traffic deaths on their city streets.
Madison takes firefighter recruitment online
By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal
The city of Madison, Wis.’s, fire department is forging a new path as it attempts to recruit trainees for this round of recruitment.
In a traditional open house setting, folks are invited to the firehouse to speak in person with recruiters. There’s a presentation and a tour of the firehouse, rigs, equipment and gear. The scenario works well for most aspiring firefighters, but Madison is looking to connect a variety of people.
“We want to reach out to folks who may not have considered this career before or have some time constraints or location constraints that are keeping them from joining us in person down at the firehouse,” said Cynthia Schuster, Madison Fire Department’s public information officer. “Our chief, he really wants to bring more people into the department who are committed to public service (and) community service.”
The idea was spawned when Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon noticed that Seattle, Wash.’s, fire department was hosting virtual open houses.
“It’s a way to reach a wider audience to make the department more accessible and to get this notion of becoming a firefighter/EMT in front of people who may not have crossed paths with this message before or considered it before,” Schuster explained. “I think a lot of people think about this job as something that they already need to have the fire or EMS experience behind them before they can apply, but with our department, that’s not the case.”
The department has a recruiting academy to teach fire and EMS, so what they want, Schuster said, is people who are driven by a passion for community, who have character and compassion.
“We’ll teach you the skills,” she said. “We don’t want to limit our options. There are a ABOVE: Pictured is a slide from firefighter/ paramedic Reggie Williams’ presentation at the Madison Fire Department’s first-ever virtual open house in September. (Photo provided by Madison Fire Department)
lot of fantastic people out there who would be amazing firefighters or EMTs, but may not have had the opportunity to explore it. We’re hoping to reach out to those folks and to make it less intimidating.”
The virtual open houses are held over Zoom, and preregistration gets a Zoom link. There is no expectation to eventually host a physical open house on site, but the registration does gain the department access to contact information to keep lines of communication open for the future. The department’s assessment testing has also changed to a virtual format as well to allow for people who might live further away or have time constraints to keep them from participating in the assessment in person.
At the department’s Zoom-based open house meetings, questions can also be
submitted in advance anonymously, which helps to break down the barrier of asking difficult questions.
One set of people the virtual recruitments can cater to is women. Only 4.5% of firefighters are women, but at Madison, it’s closer to 10%, and it’s in large part a result of efforts by the Madison Fire Department’s recruitment team.
The women’s open house will also host a panel with women from various ranks in the department describing their roles and describing other information specifically relevant to women.
“There are concerns about sharing bathrooms or showers, to ‘What happens if I want to start a family?’ ‘Or have a family on the job,’ however that looks. When deciding to get pregnant, there are significant risks of infertility just due to the carcinogens and chemicals that we’re exposed to,” said Jenna Larson, a firefighter/paramedic who is also on the recruitment committee, adding that Madison has a prenatal policy of nonhazardous duty and lactation. The department also has an affinity group for women of the Madison Fire Department where women can discuss current issues they’re struggling with. The department has 43 women on the force out of nearly 400 total—three times the national average.
“We have so many women compared to the national average that we can have these conversations in a space that’s beneficial for others.”
Coming from a volunteer department where she was the only woman on the department, Larson knows firsthand the struggle of being on a mostly male fire department. It keeps them silent at times, hoping to just fit in, but talking about it, she said, helps to create a safer environment for everyone involved.
“Women need different gear than men do, as traditional fire gear is designed to fit the male anatomical body, where there are differences for women. We’ve really experienced that especially in gloves—something you wouldn’t think of, but ill-fitting gloves can be detrimental in firefighting activities, and it took a long time to get appropriately fitting gloves, but we wouldn’t have known that without talking about it.”
Professional Zoom meetings can take some time to develop, and Schuster said the department leads on the project rehearse ahead of time to make sure everyone understands how the meetings work, how to mute and unmute, learn about and prevent feedback loops, and more, to ensure a positive experience for potential diverse recruits on the other end of the camera.
“I know that not everyone has the capability,” Schuster said. “We’re really lucky at Madison to have such a robust IT department to support our needs.”
The department only recruits every three years, so regular engagement is important for it to keep people interested. The department even boasts a YouTube page where they share videos of a “day in the life,” following individuals in the department.
“We also have a series called ‘New Beginnings,’ where a number of our folks share their story of how they were once (for example) a school teacher, and now they’re a firefighter/EMT, and we have chefs and military personnel, and just to be able to share those stories, we hope strikes a chord with people who might be in those same shoes and who might be looking for a change. Maybe you weren’t following us on social media, but someone shared that video and it took off on Facebook.”
One YouTube video, “MFD Heavy Urban Rescue Team Assists with Rescue Following Plane Crash,” dated May 16, 2021, has 1.7 million views. Firefighter/paramedic Jenna Larson hosts a virtual open house for women on Oct. 4. (Photo provided by Madison Fire Department)
Division Chief Jerry Buechner, left, and firefighter/paramedic Reggie Williams of the city of Madison Fire Department answer questions at a recent in-person recruitment open house. (Photo provided by Madison Fire Department)
“For those who have that capability to find versatile ways to relay the same message, you’re going to have a greater success rate, reaching people you didn’t expect to reach,” Schuster said. “It gives people a taste of what the job is, but also shows the people that are inside the department working for us and making them relatable.”
Larson added the Zoom meetings and other videos aren’t perfect. They don’t use extravagant lighting and use the firehouses as backgrounds for their videos.
“We want people to feel like we’re approachable,” she said. “We just want to show that, ‘We’re regular people over here, and we hope you’ll join our team.’”
For more information about how Madison handles its recruitment process, visit the one-stop shop at https://www.cityofmadison.com/ fire/join-mfd.
Reno launches ‘Biggest Little Blockchain’ to test new record-keeping method
By KEVIN KILBANE | The Municipal
The city of Reno, Nev., harnessed the capabilities of blockchain technology to put city officials, staff, customers and the public all on the same page. In the process, city officials learned some things that could be helpful to other communities adopting new technology.
“In retrospect, it probably would have been nice to have a little disclaimer that says this is a work in progress, and we’ll take your feedback and try to implement it and try to make a better product or a better service for the community,” Nic Ciccone, a city of Reno community liaison, said during a video call interview. “I think that would be a great addition to the site.”
Known as the “Biggest Little City in the World,” Reno debuted its “Biggest Little Blockchain” on Sept. 12 to provide access to ABOVE: Known as “The Biggest Little City in the World”, Reno, Nev., is now exploring a new technology—blockchain—as a new record-keeping system. (Hammon Photography/Shutterstock.com)
records for properties on the city Register of Historic Places. Reno believes the city’s historic registry is the first municipal records system in America to be made available to the public using blockchain technology.
A blockchain is like an online ledger that can be accessed from many locations and can be used to record and track records
This internet screenshot shows the homepage of the Biggest Little Blockchain, which launched Sept. 12. The site is still undergoing enhancements, but the city hopes to use blockchain technology to improve transparency, accessibility and accountability for city records. (Screenshot provided by the city of Reno, Nev.) The California Building was constructed by the state of California for the Transcontinental Highways Exposition of 1927 in Reno, Nev., the Historic Reno Preservation Society reported. The building is among properties on Reno’s Register of Historic Places that now appear on the city’s new Biggest Little Blockchain. (Provided by the city of Reno, Nev.)
and transactions. Reno hopes to use the technology, which is accessible at reno.gov/ Blockchain, to enhance transparency, accessibility and accountability with city records, it said in an announcement.
“In layman’s terms, it’s like everyone’s working on the same Google Doc, and we can see what kinds of edits are being made,” Ciccone said. Blockchain technology also ensures records can’t be lost or changed by just anyone, which allows residents to track city actions over time.
BlockApps of Brooklyn, N.Y., developed Reno’s blockchain at no cost as a pilot project, Ciccone said. Use of blockchain technology doesn’t create any additional work for city staff and doesn’t require any changes in the city’s information technology resources, he said. The city will have to pay BlockApps for future build-out and expansion of the system.
BlockApps previously has developed blockchains for businesses seeking better ways to track assets and products, the company said on its website, blockapps.net.
“We are the first municipality they have ever partnered with, so that was going to bring on challenges of its own — just working out that partnership, figuring out what we could put on the site, how could we make it as accessible as possible,” Ciccone said.
“I think the biggest issue we’ve come in contact with is just that education component,” he added. “Blockchains can be big and scary, and I think there is this misconception that because things are unchangeable — that original record — folks are worried that I can’t go in there and edit and fix a mistake that was made. We can absolutely fix mistakes that are made.”
BlockApps used Reno’s historic register to start building the blockchain because it was the smallest set of records and because the properties go through a clearly defined decision-making process, Ciccone said.
When it launched, the blockchain contained the original city historic register applications for 21 properties, but it failed to identify them as such, Ciccone noted. The mostly text format also lacked visual elements the city hoped to make part of the blockchain, such as photos, design plans, architectural renderings and images of applications, meeting minutes, and other documents produced during application, review and decision processes.
Reno’s historic preservation community voiced concern about the blockchain, citing the inaccuracies — there are only 17 properties on the register now, for example — and lack of helpful information, such as how to apply to have a property listed on the city historic register.
“With respect to this project, although it absolutely does touch those historic properties, it’s not about the historic properties themselves,” Ciccone said. “It’s about showing off a new record-keeping system and seeing if it is a viable option for the city to pursue with other records.”
Reno eventually hopes to expand the Biggest Little Blockchain to include city records such as routine maintenance work and permitting and licensing information.
Ciccone also would like to use the blockchain to attach special-use permits to land parcels rather than to property owners. A special use would be needed, for example, when a bar or restaurant wants to have live music but currently doesn’t have that permission. Currently, special-use permits inadvertently sometimes don’t get passed along to new property owners immediately, he added.
Ciccone believes there is “huge potential” for blockchain technology to enhance the way cities keep records. For example, a blockchain’s ability to allow everyone to see the same information simultaneously may eliminate the need for people to trade a dozen or more emails to move from a permit application to a final decision, he said. Use of blockchain technology also has the potential to speed up the permitting process.
“My advice with this project and in general is I think oftentimes municipalities and government are a little scared of adopting new technologies or new ways to implement things,” Ciccone said. “I think starting small here has opened up a way for the city to continue using this technology, and I think that’s just a good general rule: Starting small and seeing if that small, pilot project will work well and then building that out.”
