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SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: App for virtual building inspections gets OK
Officials approve making permanent a pilot program enabling inspectors to work remotely
http://www.pe.com/articles/county-781763-wert-program.html
San Bernardino County’s pilot program to provide virtual building inspections to residents in remote locations worked so well the county has decided to make it permanent.
County inspectors used an app to examine such things as roof repairs, ground-mounted and roof-mounted solar panels, patio covers and water heater installations, according to county spokesman David Wert.
County building official Jim Sowers analyzed results from 31 virtual inspections conducted in May, June and July, Wert said. Sowers recommended to County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux that the program be made permanent and Devereaux agreed, Wert said.
The county expects to implement the program this fall, Wert said.
“Customer comments from follow-up interviews and surveys were very positive,” Sowers said, “especially with respect to the benefit to customers in outlying areas such as Baker, Trona, and Kramer Junction.”
The county, at 20,105 square miles, is larger than several U.S. states and covers more square miles than Denmark (16,638 square miles) or Switzerland (15,940 square miles).
Saving money wasn’t the primary goal of the program, Wert said, although the county did save on drive time for inspectors and wear and tear on vehicles.
The new technology, however, created challenged for the IT professionals who helped set it up. One was to use GPS and other techniques to counter the potential for fraud by verifying inspected properties.
The bigger priority was to provide inspections at a more precise time for residents of the large county, Wert said.
As the program becomes permanent, Wert said, the county expects to see savings in staff hours and equipment costs.
No other county departments have so far proposed implementing such a program, Wert said.
Getting governments to take their functions online has been a goal of such advocates as the Inland Empire Regional Broadband Consortium, one of 16 consortiums in the Calfiornia Emerging Technology Fund.
The challenge has been approached by companies in the private sector such as Esri, the Redlands GIS firm, which is seeking innovative ways to combine cartography and crowdsourcing in a collection of maps and apps called ArcGIS for Local Government.
San Bernardino County
Number of inspectors: 10
Farthest-away inspections: Trona (135 miles) and Baker (133 miles).
County population: 2.1 million
Total inspections per year: 22,000
Officials approve making permanent a pilot program enabling inspectors to work remotely
http://www.pe.com/articles/county-781763-wert-program.html
San Bernardino County’s pilot program to provide virtual building inspections to residents in remote locations worked so well the county has decided to make it permanent.
County inspectors used an app to examine such things as roof repairs, ground-mounted and roof-mounted solar panels, patio covers and water heater installations, according to county spokesman David Wert.
County building official Jim Sowers analyzed results from 31 virtual inspections conducted in May, June and July, Wert said. Sowers recommended to County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux that the program be made permanent and Devereaux agreed, Wert said.
The county expects to implement the program this fall, Wert said.
“Customer comments from follow-up interviews and surveys were very positive,” Sowers said, “especially with respect to the benefit to customers in outlying areas such as Baker, Trona, and Kramer Junction.”
The county, at 20,105 square miles, is larger than several U.S. states and covers more square miles than Denmark (16,638 square miles) or Switzerland (15,940 square miles).
Saving money wasn’t the primary goal of the program, Wert said, although the county did save on drive time for inspectors and wear and tear on vehicles.
The new technology, however, created challenged for the IT professionals who helped set it up. One was to use GPS and other techniques to counter the potential for fraud by verifying inspected properties.
The bigger priority was to provide inspections at a more precise time for residents of the large county, Wert said.
As the program becomes permanent, Wert said, the county expects to see savings in staff hours and equipment costs.
No other county departments have so far proposed implementing such a program, Wert said.
Getting governments to take their functions online has been a goal of such advocates as the Inland Empire Regional Broadband Consortium, one of 16 consortiums in the Calfiornia Emerging Technology Fund.
The challenge has been approached by companies in the private sector such as Esri, the Redlands GIS firm, which is seeking innovative ways to combine cartography and crowdsourcing in a collection of maps and apps called ArcGIS for Local Government.
San Bernardino County
Number of inspectors: 10
Farthest-away inspections: Trona (135 miles) and Baker (133 miles).
County population: 2.1 million
Total inspections per year: 22,000
