A task that can take other municipalities months to complete manually can now be done by Jim Thorpe Borough in a matter of hours. That argument, more than any other, pushed Thorpe’s borough council to approve a new artificial intelligence-powered road and asset management software contract.

Council voted earlier this month to approve a scope of services agreement with Vialytics for $475 in setup, implementation and support costs, plus a one-year fixed subscription of $4,320, for a total first-year cost of $4,795.

The contract is structured as a three-year agreement, with the borough holding the right to opt out after each year.

Council President Connor Rodgers made the case for the software by pointing to a conversation he said he had with the county’s GIS office earlier that day.

“I learned in that conversation that Lehighton undertook a project to collect their signage in the borough a few years back and it took them a few months,” Rodgers said.

“This software, for a one-year fixed subscription, will do that in a few hours. The savings right there in one project that we need to have done pays for itself very quickly.”

The software uses vehicle-mounted cameras to photograph and inventory road conditions, signage, inlets and other infrastructure as borough crews drive their regular routes.

The data is stored in the cloud and can be accessed by staff, council and department heads from any computer, giving them real-time imagery of any street or asset in town.

“We sit here at meetings looking at Google Maps, a little street where you’re trying to find signage and inlets and everything like that,” Rodgers said.

“If our guys can log on to a computer and see where we have signage throughout the town, I think that’s going to save a lot of time.”

Beyond road conditions, the system functions as a broader asset management platform, capable of tracking equipment, generating work tickets and maintaining inventory across multiple borough departments.

Officials said the water department’s GIS data could be integrated directly into the Vialytics system, and the fire department — which currently tracks its equipment through Google Docs — could also be added as a user at no additional cost.

“It’s like a file cabinet,” Council Vice President Mike Yeastedt said at the April 2 workshop.

“The streets could have theirs, water could have theirs, you could have different access levels, but the fire department actually could use it as well to do their asset management.”

Yeastedt added that if the borough ever decided to stop using the software, none of the data would be lost.

“If you sit down and develop all your assets, and then a couple years from now decide for some reason you’re not going to continue on, that information can be transferred into our GIS program,” the official said.

“It could be uploaded into the program being developed for the water department.”

The software also comes with hardware. The subscription includes three iPhones provided by Vialytics, along with windshield-mount brackets for the cameras — meaning the borough would not need to purchase additional equipment or put extra mileage on its own devices.

The approval did not come without debate.

One resident raised a different objection, one that touched on the broader issue the borough has been navigating as it simultaneously works to plan for any potential data centers through its zoning ordinance.

“My only concern is that on one side of town we’re against the data center, against AI, and then in our everyday life, all we’re doing is increasing our AI usage,” resident Trish Spillman told council. “We’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.”

Rodgers acknowledged the irony but said the borough had little choice given the direction technology is heading.

“Your point is well taken,” Rodgers said in response. “That said, AI is the future, whether we like it or not.”

Resident and planning commission member John McGuire, who spoke Thursday during public comment before the vote, said he had followed the earlier coverage of the Vialytics discussion and came down in favor.

“AI is going to be the way of the future,” McGuire said.

“I think it would allow the borough staff to have more time. It’ll give them time to do what they really need to be doing. I hope that we use it properly, so it stays that way, helping everybody.”