Watonga City Council heard a presentation Tuesday evening in regular session from Mark Masoner, the CEO of True North Mapping and Solutions. His business evolved from 11 years working for the city of Ada, where his job was to map the infrastructure of the growing town, pinpointing water and sewer lines, junctions, gas mains, and electrical lines. It grew to include zoning maps that can zoom in to a single building, allowing investors to know the capacity of a business site before making decisions.
The problem was, he said, when he started and as he has branched out to creating maps for other towns, is that the information is often in one person’ s head. When that person changes jobs, moves away, retires or passes away, the information is lost. And even if there is a map, it is often has not been updated or is irregular. The public works director or department head knew the lines curved at point A, but it wasn’t marked on the map.
Masoner will change all that for the city. His company will map all the city infrastructure, locating it within six inches of accuracy. That means no more digging up roads looking for lines or someone buying a building for a business only to discover it doesn’t have appropriate water lines.
Once the mapping is completed, the maps are kept on I Pads that the city keeps. Masoner and his crew come to town once a month and update information and training users as needed.
The mapping process will take about six months, he said, and is expected to cost $60,000. The website hosting for the maps is and additional $10,000 and the monthly fees are $1,500 maintenance on the system and $500 on the I Pads, or $2,000 per month.
Ryan Bruner addressed the elephant in the room.
“We just heard the numbers are in a downturn, so I’ll ask. How are we going to pay for this?”
City Manager Karrie Little said the money would come from the city’s capital improvement funds, which has a healthy balance.
“I can see where it would save time and money as well as wear and tear on our people,” Mayor Bill Seitter said. “When Love’s wanted to build (the new location) we spent a lot of time with their people, figuring this stuff out. I’d rather cut somewhere else to pay for this,” he said.
“So now, the city could send a utilities map to the company looking to build instead of looking for the information and the lines,” Masoner said.
Little added it would be a protection of the city’s infrastructure data, which is currently stored in a ring binder about 10 inches thick. “It’s an invaluable resource,” she added.
The council voted to hire True North, but there was no indication when the mapping would begin.