The city of Polson got a $750 boost from Tim Lake, owner/partner of Lake Seed Inc. and Joey Hennes, Missoula Branch Relationship Manager for Northwest Farm Credit Services.

The pair delivered a check Jan. 20 to the city after it won a rural community grant from the bank.

It is the third monetary grant Lake obtained for the city.

The money will be used to buy supplies for GERTIE, the city’s electronic geographical information system scanner, plotter and printer.

The GIS system is new to the city and run by Forest Neimeyer, GIS technician.

The system is invaluable on a variety of levels and enhances inter-departmental coordination, Neimeyer said.

Neimeyer works for Water and Sewer Superintendent, Tony Porrazzo.

The GIS department began in 2010 with a smaller system of devices, Karen Sargent, city public relations representative.

Through the years the geographical mapping process grew more value to the municipality.

GERTIE can do things like take a tree inventory and map the city’s underground maze of water and sewer lines. It takes information, runs it through its software applications and creates a massive database of knowledge that helps the city’s various departments do their jobs more efficiently.

It can scan things like antique maps and can print things like up-to-date mapping systems provided by other agencies.

Lake said the advisory committee meets quarterly and is intended to provide local-level knowledge to the bank for future grant consideration. He is also a customer of the bank.

Lake, however, did not write the grant. Instead he sent a letter of support to Sargent, who authored the document. 

Before GERTIE got her $750 boost, Lake helped secure a $3,500 grant for the Mission Mountain Drug Taskforce in 2014 and a $2,000 grant for the Mission Valley Aquatics Center in 2012.