The Hobart Sanitary District is launching a multi-year project to assess and improve the city’s stormwater system.

Residents can learn more about the five-phase project and offer input at a board meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

Tim Kingsland, sanitary/ stormwater district coordinator, said workers will inventory all the city’s stormwater infrastructure including manholes, pipes, ponds and swales.

That data will be loaded into a GIS site so city staff can quickly gain information about a specific area.

He said crews will be out with survey equipment to record all the city’s assets.

“Stormwater is becoming more and more crucial to everybody and to have an up-to-date inventory will help us in the long term to understand what we have in the ground,” he said.

He said there’s no construction ahead. “We just want people to come and get an understanding of what the city is trying to do,” he said.

“Hobart and other cities have been around for a long time, and records weren’t always kept as to what is in the ground. Now, we’ll have an assessment of that data.”

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.