A renewal agreement with Nearmap U.S., Inc., an aerial technology company, will go for a Newburgh City Council vote on Monday, November 27. The agreement would be for one year at the cost of $2,500.

City Comptroller Janice Gaston made the council aware on Monday, November 20 that the services provided are currently used by the codes department, the fire department, the city assessor’s office and the city planning and development department. “This is currently budgeted and proposed in the 2024 Budget,” she said.

Councilman Anthony Grice followed with a raised question as to why the city does not utilize Google Earth or Google Maps for their aerial mapping services. “Nearmaps specially, it allows, it has many years of imagery so you can click back through various years of imagery,” said City Director of Planning and Development Alexandra Church. “It has different angles of imagery.”

With Nearmaps, it allows access to more angles of imagery for properties in the city and recorded imagery can be traced to over a decade according to Church. This allows the viewer to see the changes to the property and so forth.