Mayor Ken Cockayne announced Friday that Bristol is one of 13 municipalities in Connecticut that has been awarded a State Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program grant from the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
The release said the grant will be used to purchase fleet management software that will help to increase the efficiency of the regularly scheduled vehicles operated by the Department of Public Works.
“Through the Capital Region Council of Governments, the City of Bristol was selected to receive funding for a U.S. (Department of Transportation) program. By enabling the Department of Public Works to install this vehicle routing software, the city will become more efficient in the way we collect trash and perform other services,” Cockayne said, according to the press release. ”At the end of the day, we will save fuel and wear-and-tear on the vehicles, as well as reduce pollution through vehicle emissions.”
Bristol’s grant of $60,000 will be used to purchase the vehicle routing software and train city staff on its use. Annual maintenance and updating of the software will be the responsibility of the City in the future.
A city match of $15,000 has already been set aside in the budget for the purchase of the software.
“The goal in the long run is to reduce vehicle emissions as well as save time and money for the City,” said Walter Veselka, public works director, according to the press release. “This is a great opportunity for the city to upgrade our capability and introduce some cutting edge technology to our fleet management. The department covers 225 miles of streets and is responsible for waste disposal, recycling and yard waste collection, as well as snow removal and street sweeping. Whatever we can do to increase the efficiency of our operations will be a savings in fuel as well as staff time.”