The city of Smithville is spending $9,800 to make sure its citizens' poo gets to where it’s supposed to go.

The board of mayor and aldermen unanimously voted to purchase a special sewer camera for use in the labyrinth of underground pipes that transports the city’s sewage. The city used the camera for three weeks, checking to make sure it serves its purpose. Satisfied the camera is well worth the price, the aldermanic council opted to go ahead and purchase it at a cost of $9,800.

The camera can snake around through underground pipes and passages, finding blockages, recording video images on a hard drive. The camera has a 200-foot cable.

Given issues with old sewage pipes, Alderman Danny Washer said the camera is something the city has needed for quite a while.

“That could have saved us a lot of money,” Washer said of the camera’s ability to locate damaged and clogged pipes in the sewage system.