ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Goodbye paper ticket…hello e-ticket.

Thanks to 21st century technology and a $10,000 grant reimbursement, the City of Robertsdale Municipal Court System and Police Department will benefit from a new software system that will eliminate the need for writing out speeding tickets and having to input them into the court system computer.

In a presentation to the City Council at Monday night’s meeting, Robertsdale Police Chief Investigator Rex Bishop walked the council members through a demonstration of the new E-Citation/E-Ticket program by Municipal Software Group that allows the officer to scan a driver’s license and input their offense directly into the computer and then print out the ticket to give to the driver.

“Every police car is equipped with a laptop, a scanner and a printer that allows the officer to know exactly what the driver’s record looks like and eliminates the need to manually write a ticket. Saves a lot of time and tickets are more legible. We have been using it for two weeks and haven’t had any problems. Very pleased with it so far,” Bishop said.

This new technology is being used all over the county and Ann Simpson, Chief Financial Officer for the City, said it will make their job so much more efficient and eliminate all the need for paperwork.

“We were running out of storage space for all the old records we have to keep and heard about this new system. We went and saw how it was being used in Summerdale and really liked it so we were able to purchase it for $7,000. That is a very good price considering the other option of spending $30,000 for document storage systems. We decided to go with this software which includes the hardware, software and server,” Simpson said.

This E-Citation and E-Ticket programs are compatible with each other and the server will be housed at the police department . These programs are not incurring any expense to the City as a $10,000 grant the PD received a few years ago allowed them to purchase laptops for each vehicle and reimbursements from that grant allowed them to purchase the scanners and printers for the vehicles, Simpson said.

Also the court keeps three dollars from each ticket and it is put in a Municipal Court savings account and that money paid for the software.

“We have to keep DUI and Case Action Summaries forever and other documents we have to keep for five and 10 years and all our old files can be transferred into the new system and it is so nice to be able to get rid of all the paper that’s taking up so much space,” Simpson said.

Eventually they will be able to electronically send the tickets directly to the Department of Public Safety in Montgomery but for now they are really happy and excited about the idea of not having to input each ticket into the computer.

“The overall expense for all of this was $20,000 so we saved the city $10,000 by going with this program. It was taking about 40 hours a week to input this stuff into the computer and we have been talking about this program for four years. I’m glad we are able to use it now. This software is statewide and saves us so much time and everyone has done a great job implementing it.” said Mayor Charles Murphy.

In other council business, a motion was passed to purchase a $450 quarter-page ad for the Graduation publication by Gulf Coast Newspapers and two Resolutions, No.005-11 explaining the Municipal Water Pollution Prevention policy and No. 006-11 in support of the Community Action Agency, who used community block grants to provide services and opportunities to low-income and unemployed residents of Baldwin, Escambia, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh counties.

Greg Smith, City Engineer, explained the Water Pollution Policy resolution reviewed the annual report which graded the city on their sewer performance for the year.

“We scored an 82 which is not as good as it could be but we dealt with a couple of overflows and spillages from the new sewer plant because of all the rain which gave us 50 of the points and then we need to look at options on how to eliminate the sludge that has been building up since 1979. We will be doing some smoke bomb testing on the old sewer system to see where the problems are and try to eliminate them., “ Smith said.

Murphy also announced the dates for Summer Camps offered for free by the City. Camps offered this year are:

Boys and Girls Basketball June 7-9 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Robertsdale High School gym

Boys and Girls Tennis June 15-17 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Robertsdale City Courts

Boys Basketball June 21-23 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. RHS baseball field

Boys Football June 28-30 from 8 a.m. to Noon RHS practice field

Girls Softball July12-14 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Girls Softball complex

Boys and Girls Soccer July 12-14 from 5-7 p.m. RHS practice field

Girls Cheerleading June 23-30 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. RHS gym

Boys Football July 19-21 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. RHS practice filed

There may also be an Art, (one week), Sewing (two weeks) and Tutoring (last six weeks with each grade level lasting two weeks) if they can be worked out, Murphy said.