Mayor explains plans for technology | News


Mayor explains plans for technology | News

JONESBORO — Mayor Harold Copenhaver envisions bringing the kind of technology to bear in Jonesboro that will make government work more efficiently, provide residents with better information and services, and at the same time provide reliable internet access to every neighborhood.

“Really, what I’m talking about is, I just want to broaden this community’s horizons on what this community needs to address,” Copenhaver, who took office Jan. 1, told The Sun. ”COVID proved to us over the last year how important technology is and where it is going to go and the role that it’s going to play in our future.”

Copenhaver has some specific things in the works, while also working behind the scenes to develop a partnership among government agencies and the private sector in hopes of executing his broader vision to provide internet access available for all.

“We have to look at it from the scale of what can we do for everyone in the community,” Copenhaver said. “I have asked what can we do to become a 1 gigabyte community. And what 1 gigabyte community means, this provides the resources for all of our youth to have the same opportunity when it comes to internet service. The same ability to have the same form of education, whether it’s at home or not. But it’s going to take an investment in our community.”

While the local public schools provide laptops for their students, many are unable to use them at their homes because of the lack of access to service, he said.

“If a student has to go home from our public school or home school or private school and two-thirds of our students don’t have the ability to do their school work because they don’t have connectability … I want to make to make sure that we’re protecting everybody to have the same opportunities” Copenhaver said.

The new mayor inherited one new tool from former Mayor Harold Perrin. Late last year, the city purchased a data base software known as Iworx. While it wasn’t his idea, Copenhaver is excited about its potential.

“It’s going to be able to provide the ability for all of our departments to communicate better and to allow better services to our community,” Copenhaver explained. “Which, in turn allows the projects to be built faster, and then we can create additional revenue at a faster pace.”

Private sector builders and developers will also have access to the software in order to submit plans and proposals electronically.

The city’s engineering and planning departments are in the midst of implementing the new software and other departments will gain access in the near future as people learn how to use it.

One of Copenhaver’s first technological upgrades would be improvements to one of the city’s most basic services – garbage collection.

Jonesboro was one of the first cities in the region to implement automated sanitation trucks as a way to more quickly and efficiently collect household waste, but that was two decades ago.

“It’s been 22 years and we have not updated our sanitation routes,” Copenhaver said. “Well, we need technology to assist us to say which is going to be the better way to do so.”

Because of shifts in population in various parts of the city, many routes have become unbalanced, Copenhaver said, and he sees the strain the current routes puts on drivers on certain days of the week.

Following the death in February of Donny Gibson, the sanitation director, the mayor said he is considering hiring a company to assess the current routes and recommend potential reorganization moving forward.

Copenhaver also wants to be able to use technology to help plan street repair and flood mitigation measures. And newer technology will help the police, fire, emergency communications, traffic flow and public transit keep pace, he said.

The city will receive several million dollars over the next couple of years from the latest coronavirus stimulus package. Copenhaver said he hopes a large part of that money can be used for some of his technology initiatives.


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