Athens County
                 Cooperative Land Administration
                  and Information Mapping system
 
December 31, 2007
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
                                  Re:  GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
 
ILGARD continued work on the LeAx GIS updating line maps,
scanning existing maps and developing an internal website.
LeAx plans to acquire GPS units and use in combination with
"Thumper" technology to trace their lines where no mapping
exists.
 
Howard updated the committee on O.U.'s campus mapping,
and indicated that a new building will be built on their
Hebbardsville property.  Their internal utility website is
back up and running.
 
Ken updated on the Auditor's Office in-house GIS plans.
A Hocking College Intern, Ben Abfall is working to fix errors in
their database (duplicate PINs, etc.), and Ken is maintaining
their parcel fabric.  They are working with Mapresearch to
develop under a different format the ability to print maps to
scale, one-mile section maps, etc.  Their everyday in-house use
will be ESRI ArcView 3.x and updates will be made using ESRI for
updates.
 
Bob reported working with Dave and Angel to finalize maps for the
County Comprehensive Plan - a beginning for a continuing effort
for updating the Comprehensive Plan.
 
Bret Alphin gave a presentation on the emerging Washington County
GIS.  They began two years ago and have had centerlines and
addressing accomplished by DDTI, and adopted "AccuGlobe" software
for their System.  Bret was very complimentary of our Athens
County GIS saying that in their Buckeye Hill's Region Athens
County GIS is the Class Act high on any scale and the other
counties are much further behind and that the Athens County GIS
is their "Idol".  Thank you for the compliment Bret!
 
AVL implementation is underway in the Athens County Engineer
Department.  An AVL Pilot Demonstration for snow plows will begin
early next year.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting will be held
January 17, 2008 at 10:00 A.M. in the ILGARD conference room.
 
A summary of GIS work for 2007 is provided on the next page.
 
Sincerely,
 
Archie Stanley - GIS Coordinator
16000 Canaanville Road - Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone (740) 593-5514 - Fax (740) 592-4616
E-mail: 
astanley@AthensCountyGovernment.com
 
-------------------------------------------------
 
GIS work accomplished in 2007:
 
Planning continued to bring a GPS based real-time emergency
vehicle location capability to enhance our already excellent
E-911 operation.  New radios and frequencies are operational, and
the old County Engineer frequency will be used as the vehicle
locater data transmission channel.  A Pilot Project was
implemented in the Athens County Engineer Department to
demonstrate this new technology.
 
The Engineer's Office continued a project to locate countywide
Section Corner Monuments by Global Positioning methods.
 
The State of Ohio Office of Information Technology, Ohio
Geographically Referenced Information Program (OGRIP) acquired of
seamless statewide imagery for the Southern counties during the
spring. The statewide orthophotography project acquired 1-foot
pixel resolution natural color digital orthophotography data for
the entire state, and Athens County will receive the new data in
2008.
 
The Athens County Comprehensive Plan update continued.  Part of
this project includes mapping which was finalized.  The maps will
be produced by ILGARD.  See the Plan at athenscountyplan.net.
 
Ohio University implemented a campus-wide handicapped
accessibility map and utility mapping internal website.
 
The Auditor's Office began development of an internal GIS in
cooperation with MapResearch, inc.  They plan to produce maps to
scale and One-Mile Section Maps.
 
The maps for the Maplewood Cemetery in Trimble Township were
scanned for possible future use in developing a Trimble Township
Cemetery Pilot Project.
 
ODNR and FEMA planned for a revision to the County flood plain
maps.  Our five feet elevation contour data will be used for the
majority of places with new maps available in about one year.
 
Hocking College is doing a GIS/GPS location of utility poles in
Nelsonville that will be used to show the probable 100 Year Flood
elevation on the poles.
 
Athens City added new fire hydrant locations to their existing
fire hydrant data layer, and as mapped school districts and
zoning updates, and their Tree Inventory.
 
LeAx Water District started development of an internal GIS.
LeAx will to eventually tie the GIS to a work order system.
LeAx will work with GPS units and a "Thumper" locating system
to trace their lines for which they have no mapping.