The application was developed by city employees, who used two recent snow storms to test it.
“We went through the first time, and then noticed a couple of tweaks we needed to make, and with the second storm that came last week, we feel pretty comfortable that it’s ready to go,” said Brandon Saurber, Hamilton’s director of Strategy and Information, who rolled out the My Hamilton Resident Portal in October.
It’s easy to find: Go to myhamilton.hamilton-oh.gov, and Snow Informer is the first application you can click on at the resident portal, by clicking on the words “Snow Informer.” Those are the first words that appear on the portal beneath the image of Alexander Hamilton, the city’s namesake.
The city uses its Automatic Vehicle Locator technology, which provides real-time information about snow plows’ locations, whether the plows are up or down, and whether their salt spreaders are putting down salt.
City staff wanted to make sure everything was working smoothly before putting it online.
The resident portal also gives residents information about their own properties, the neighborhoods where they live, and construction (of roads, and also of significant new buildings that are going up) that are happening across the city.
The portal also will inform people about upcoming festivals and other events. People also are able to post information about their own events, such as garage sales.
Saurber credited several people at the city’s garage — Joe Simmons, Chris Haynes, Jim Williams, Craig Koger and Matt Zettler — as well as Ken Carrier, Larry Rover and Craig Bruner in the city’s Strategy and Information area for making the project happen.
Other things available on the portal are information about the many sculptures in the city, the murals that have been painted on buildings in recent years, museums and galleries, and parks and trails.
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