Athens County
                    Cooperative Land Administration and
                         Information Mapping system
 
February 29, 2000
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
                                   RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
 
Commissioners:
 
Our E-911 dispatch mapping and automated house numbering systems are
scheduled for deployment early in March.  Equipment is to be installed on
February 28th, software and data added on February 29th, and training is
set to begin the first week in March.  Doug Bentley, E-911 Chief of
Operations will host a future GIS Steering Committee meeting to show us
the new system, and is considering a public open house event very soon.
 
J.D. Overton from ESRI St. Louis will come to Athens for a consultation
with J.B. Hoy and I the week of March 20, 2000.  Our discussions will
include:
 
* Systems design for our central GIS location,
* Review and recommendations for our database design,
* Installing our data and testing it on our NovaLIS software,
* Developing, setting up, and testing an Internet public access
  GIS web site for our Ames Township Pilot data, and
* Discussing the SQL connect we will use to link to the Auditors database.
 
I met with Kris Irwin, GIS Coordinator from Jackson County.  Kris has
developed computer routines ["Avenue" (ESRI) programming language] that
perform customized functions within their GIS data.  Their new address is
262 East Main Street in Jackson.  They are based in AutoCAD Map and use
ArcView occasionally.  They operate a network within the office from a
central server, running four workstations.  Tax Plat maintenance is
performed out of the GIS office, and they operate a public access counter .
 
I met with the County Commissioners regarding the location possibilities
for housing our GIS office.  We have agreed that the best option is to
build an addition to the County Engineer's office.  Preliminary planning is
underway.  The goal is to occupy the GIS Office in 2001.  We also had
further discussions about the needs for our GIS operations budget for 2001.
The budget request is due June 1, 2000.
 
ESRI has three new free Virtual Campus web site modules:

The first module provides an overview of the United States census, its
evolution and primary purpose, and how both public and private sectors use
data collected by the census. Basic census geographies are introduced while
students have an opportunity to work with real census data.
 
The second module introduces fundamental Visual Basic concepts, such as
object-oriented and event-driven programming. Students create graphical
user interfaces (GUIs) on a form using various controls and set up control
properties. Code elements and using online help to find the syntax for
these elements are also covered. Students apply what they have learned by
creating a Visual Basic application from start to finish.
 
The third module introduces GIS and three Windows-based ArcInfo
applications: ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox. An overview of
fundamental GIS concepts and ArcInfo software is provided, helping students
become familiar with the functionality of Arc Map, ArcCatalog, and
ArcToolbox, and their interfaces.
 
Jeff Ditty, Ron Lucus, J.B. Hoy and I met with Bob Eichenberg, and Hugh
Bloemer and Jim Green from O.U. Cartography regarding a location of
utilities project for the planning area known as the three-mile limit.
The project will utilize cartography s tudents and create location data
and map layers for major telephone, gas, electricity, water and sewer lines
and be completed this summer.  Bob will administer the project and report
progress through our GIS Steering Committee.
 
Ron Lucus reports that the City of Athens did a number of things with GIS
over the past year.  They developed a Project map that showed all of the
projects that would be going on within the city during the year.  The map
was color coded by groups responsible for the projects (City, OU, and
private developers).  A database table was prepared showing what was going
to be done in the areas and the projected timeframe.  These elements were
incorporated into the GIS and are now easily edited.  This map served as a
basis for their 2000 projects map.  Active GIS themes include zoning, snow
route removal, fire hydrants located using GPS, fire response occurrences,
planning maps, contract mowing areas, and site plans of city events
(Halloween, International Street Fair, King Midget Race, etc.)  Tax plat
scanning was performed and supplied to ILGARD for the county's tax plat GIS
development.  The street database was created and attached.  Many other
themes are in development.  The city also expanded the GIS department by
adding one more full time position and a part time student intern.
 
We made final preparations to publish a report to the public about our
Athens County GIS.  The report will receive widespread distribution
through newspaper and extra copies will be printed for distribution at
meetings, etc.
 
An attached article describes some of the methods of ensuring web site
security as part of regular GIS operations.  A second article describes
a transition to digital parcel maintenance by Russell County, Alabama.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for March 16, 2000
at 10:00 a.m. in the ILGARD conference room.  Bob Eichenberg and
Scott Miller are scheduled to speak.
 
I am scheduled to speak about our GIS to the Ohio University Emeriti
Association meeting in March.
 
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of Athens
County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
 
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator
555 East State Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone (740) 593-5514
Fax (740) 592-4616
astanley@frognet.net