Once a gritty manufacturing center, the historic City of Beacon is experiencing an artistic and economic renaissance, thanks in large part to the forward thinking and planning by City leaders. To ensure that Beacon’s public assets and infrastructure will continue to support future growth and development, the City collaborated with Delaware Engineering and Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress to develop an Asset Management Plan. The effort is intended to assist the City in maintaining infrastructure and public assets in a condition suitable to meet the needs of the public at a reasonable cost. The products of this effort are an Excel database Tool, a User Manual and an Asset Management and Capital Planning Guide.

Because an asset inventory is the essential foundation of management and planning, Delaware began by reviewing existing City plans and documents, and gathering and managing data regarding the nature, location and condition of various assets of the City. Available data was gathered from multiple existing sources such as DOT records and City insurance lists. Delaware also performed site visits to assess the condition of City water and wastewater treatment plants and buildings.

Delaware ultimately created the Asset Management and Capital Planning Tool, an inventory of the City’s major assets in one database. The City will be able to use this Tool to prioritize investments in major repairs or replacements, to estimate costs, and to evaluate financing alternatives to allow for sound planning and implementation. The database data can be tied to, and worked with, in a GIS system, enabling the City to generate lists of assets of interest and then to visualize these spatially in GIS.

The Tool includes a worksheet for basic project cost analysis and comparison, and is a resource for, not a substitute for, management decision making. The User Manual is a guide for the use and updating of the Tool as the City repairs, replaces and inventories its assets. The Guide provides an overall asset management and capital planning framework to assist the City in integrating asset management thought processes into daily operations and long-term planning.