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Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, November 2012
A system developed in Seekonk to enable residents to apply for open-burning and other fire-related permits online is serving as a model for other area cities and towns.
In March, the project, coordinated by the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, received a $76,800 state innovation grant. The money is enabling the towns to cover the cost of setting up the software, according to Ross Perry, director of municipal management in the regional planning agency’s Homeland Security Department.
“We’d like to improve public access to fire departments,” Perry said. “There’s a problem if the department closes at 4 o’clock and you have to work until 5 or 6.”
While the online permitting system may not lead to immediate cost savings, it should free up personnel to tend to other matters, according to Perry. Much of the information that is now filled in by hand, such as a house’s parcel number and the year the house was built, will appear automatically on the online record.
Some southeastern Massachusetts towns process more than 600 open-burn permits per year, according to Perry.
The software also can be used to issue building permits.
“Our goal was to simplify the administrative work by the personnel,” Perry said. “You shouldn’t have to write the permit by hand, and then have them write in the same information with your name and address and phone number when they issue a permit.”
GeoTMS, a Franklin-based company whose product is widely used in the Hartford, Conn., area, will provide the software. The company takes a small portion of the revenue that is generated.
In the Hartford area, “towns found that revenue went up, because more people were taking out permits” due to the convenience of the system, Perry said.
He added that town halls may also benefit from having fewer commercial trucks idling in their parking lot while the vehicle’s driver is inside filling out a building permit by hand.
At least seven other area cities and towns – Dighton, Freetown, North Attleboro, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton and Westport – intend to adopt the technology, Perry said. Fall River and Fairhaven are considering it as well.
Peter Burke, a Seekonk fire lieutenant who promoted the idea of enabling residents to file open-fire permits online, said the system should be operating in his town by early this month. The software, he said, also will make it easier for businesses that store hazardous liquids or materials to obtain the required permits.
Not all residents have reliable Internet access, Burke acknowledged, but the people who need to come to Town Hall to obtain permits will be able to do so more quickly than before. A town employee will be able to pull up an electronic form already populated with much of the essential information.
For more information, contact Peter Burke at (508) 336-8510, ext. 2402.