In situations that require an additional degree of stealth, Newport’s police department will soon have a remote-controlled rover robot at its disposal.

At the Newport commission meeting Monday, Duke Energy presented Newport Police Department with check for $9,000 to pay for what the city calls a “SWAT-Bot.”

The robot’s prototype was created at Northern Kentucky University. An officer discovered the robot on campus, and began exploring the idea of deploying one on the city’s police force.

Since then, several entities, including Checkmate Robotics, Duke Energy and the informatics department at NKU, worked on plans to build a robot for the Newport Police Department.

The robot can be controlled from up to a half-mile away, turn in any direction, and climb up stairs if needed. In addition to deploying the robot in particularly risky situations, SWAT-BOT will also be used to show off the college’s STEM programs.

“This isn’t the end of a project. This is the beginning of a relationship that entails all of us,” said Lt. Paul Kunkel of the Newport Police. “We’re going to work on improving and adding to the robot. Our police department must embrace technology, and when it comes to community policing, I don’t think it gets any better than this.”

Other notes:

John Salisbury, co-founder of the Newport-based technology company Nexigen, shared another update on the timeline for implementing a “Smart City” initiative in Newport, which includes the construction of several nodes around Newport that will give off a publicly accessible Wi-Fi signal.

The nine-foot-tall nodes will include electrical ports to charge electronics, two 55-inch monitors, and a tablet to access the internet. Salisbury hopes to add charging ports for hybrids once the nodes are installed.

Salisbury said the tablet’s internet would be heavily filtered, in an attempt to quell some of the problems other cities have had with users looking up salacious or offensive material on public internet.

Local businesses will receive a discounted rate for advertising on the nodes in an attempt to ease some of the tension caused by larger companies advertising on nodes outside of local competitors in other smart cities.

The nodes will also compile data on passing pedestrians, including their gender, race, and ethnicity, on what Salisbury compares to a Microsoft Excel sheet. The nodes will not take pictures of passers-by. When one attendee questioned the necessity of the data compilation, Salisbury said recording demographics would help attract advertisers and businesses to the city.

“There will be no personally identifying information in this data. We wouldn’t even want the risk of having any of that, because it comes with a tremendous amount of liability,” said Sailisbury. “Privacy was our number one concern. It has a constant video stream, but doesn’t actually record any video. It just takes the script and records the same information that you make from taking a quick glance at someone.”

Salisbury said 70 percent of the build-out for the Wi-Fi project is complete, and implementation of the first two nodes on Monmouth and York streets is on track for early 2017. After seeing the smart city initiative start to take form in Newport, Salisbury said Cincinnati is looking into applying a similar initiative to its downtown.

“Talk about energy and passion…this guy doesn’t stop,” said Commissioner Tom Guidugli, motioning to Salisbury. “This is one of the best ideas in the country, and that’s why people are chasing you down. It’s a really exciting time.”

Nexigen and the city of Newport will present the smart city initiative and plans for the nodes at NKU on October 3.

For the second half of the Carothers Road renovation, commissioners unanimously moved to again work with TEC Engineering Inc., which designed the road’s first renovation that was completed recently.

The renovation, paid for by federal funds with 20 percent city match, will eliminate overhead electric and replace sidewalks and curbs on Carothers Road from Firestone Auto Care to Monmouth Street. The approved grant is for $1.2 million, and the city plans to apply for another grant to cover the remaining 10 percent of costs.

The city estimated the design phase would take about six months, after which they hope to award construction bids in April, and complete the project around October 2017.

City Manager Tom Fromme also urged residents to report any issues of vandalism in Newport, citing five recent mast arms that required fixing, costing the city more than $200,000.

Anyone who provides a tip leading to the arrest of a vandal is subject to receive a $250 award, though Fromme says no one has taken advantage of the incentive since it was implemented 20 years ago.

“It’s frustrating for us, and it should be frustrating for the taxpayers, because they’re the ones paying to fix this,” said Fromme.

The next Newport Commission Meeting will take place on Monday, October 24 at the Newport Municipal Building. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

Written by Alex Valentine, RCN contributor