North Judson Town Council Members Approve Purchase of New Camera for Utility Department

Posted on December 8, 2017
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI

North Judson Town Council members approved the purchase of a new push camera at the request of Town Superintendent Marshall Horstmann during Monday evening’s town council meeting.

Horstmann explained that a push camera is an inspection tool that can be utilized for their fee ordinance where water and sewer lines are inspected at the request of homeowners for a $100 fee. He added that it could also be used for checking the town’s lines in general.

He said the current camera is more than 10 years old and they’ve had consistent problems with it not turning on. He added that there were also issues with the way that material was recorded and stored on to discs.

The town superintendent said he initially contacted 5 companies and two came out to demo their products. Both of the demoed cameras had 200 foot cables and self leveling camera heads. He also said the cameras included a feature that could help them pinpoint particular problems.

He explained, “You can record to a flash drive, and while you’re recording, if you need to take a picture you can take a snap shot of whatever might be an issue.”

During the public presentation portion of the meeting, town council members approved a reimbursement of $1,000 to Nancy and Richard Capouch because they had to pay out of pocket to repair a damaged sewer line on a John Street property. Horstmann mentioned that it was likely that utility department unintentionally caused the damage.

Councilwoman Jane Ellen Felchuck asked if having a working push cam could have assisted with that situation. Horstmann said that it would help prevent those types of accidents from happening in the future. A purchase order was presented in the amount of $9,600 to Best Supply to buy the new piece of equipment; Horstmann’s request received unanimous council approval.