Spearfish develops snow plow and garbage truck GPS tracker system

SPEARFISH S.D. — A new snow plow and garbage truck GPS tracker system will soon be available as a smartphone app for Spearfish residents.

Spearfish Public Works Department has come up with an app that allows users to track progress of garbage trucks and snow plows in the city.

GPS systems installed on the truck or plow allows for the city to monitor where the vehicles are and if they need focus attention to different parts of the city.

Dustin Lee, Director of Public Works in Spearfish said “Equipping the vehicles with GPS and creating a website where, when those trucks would leave and the plows were down, the system was smart enough to turn a street from red to green. And then we would know that, that streets been plowed. So we could look real quick and see what streets are still red and where we needed to push assets as the storm event happens.”

The system is especially useful in informing the public of what roads are clear and not clear during snow storms.

“It’s gonna change the whole game here in Spearfish. Can you imagine waking up in the morning knowing when your street is gonna get plowed? You can actually see the plows coming throughout the city, you’ll know is it’s safe to take your kids to school because you can see a green route all the way to school. Same for your trash cans too, it’s not necessarily a safety thing, it’s more kind of a cool thing. You can look out and see if you’ve missed taking your trash to the edge of the curb.”

The app is set to go live sometime later this month.