Athens County
                    Cooperative Land Administration
                    and Information Mapping system
 
February 28, 2001
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
                                RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
 
Doug Bentley, E-911 Chief is researching legal procedures for
distributing computerized data to the private business sector.
Doug received a request for data from a private business for some of
his GIS data.  We wish to ensure that we follow State law exactly in
this instance, because what we do here will establish precedence for
future such requests.
 
I would appreciate receiving input into the mission of our central
core GIS office.  Our facility is scheduled for construction next year
and the following year we hope to begin operations.  In the meantime
however, several of our functions have already begun.  The mission
functions that I see evolving for the central GIS office are:
 
* Foster communication and support
* Enforce security of data
* Establish standards
* Set up training for users
* Manage outreach and technology transfer
* Forge relationships and agreements
* Central data warehouse management
* Internet access management
 
Please give me your thoughts about these functions and suggest any
other functions you feel are appropriate.
 
Our GIS Steering Committee set a goal to have new aerial photography
flown over Spring Break, 2002.  I am researching methods available to
us to advertise for this work.  Once we select a consultant, we will
work with them to make sure that we have our flight at the most
advantageous time, and that we enable the best possible orthophoto
scheme that will allow for subsequent work such as topo maps.
 
This is the beginning year for Athens County GIS "outreach" to other
community sectors.  The Athens County Library system is the first such
effort (see next paragraph).  Next we plan to approach all five high
schools in Athens County about GIS programs.  Hopefully we can involve
our school administrators, teachers, and students in the science of
GIS.  Surveyors, attorneys, and realtors are potential GIS user
sectors also.  I am always open for input, and I would welcome any
ideas you may have about other sectors to reach out to.
 
County Commissioner Lenny Eliason gave me a lead on a grant program
from The Community Technology Fund (CTF) of Ohio.  This fund was
established as a result of the settlement agreement in the
SBC/Ameritech merger case.  The CTF is dedicated to projects to help
assure that rural and low-income areas in Ohio have access to advanced
telecommunications technology.  We have formed a partnership with the
Nelsonville Public Library association of seven libraries throughout
Athens County and have applied for a CTF grant.  An internship through
ILGARD will assist in the implementation of this joint project by
teaching basic GIS classes for librarians and the general public.
We may ask ESRI to customize the ArcView screens to be focused toward
library terminology and to use by the general public.  GIS is an
appropriate technology for managing and accessing digital library
data, and particularly collections of spatial data such as maps or
images of the earth.  But they are also appropriate for any collection
that can be geographically referenced.  Therefore, this joint project
will incorporate public access to computer and telecommunication
technology in our Athens County rural and low-income community and
provide long-term public access to our GIS data through the Athens
County Libraries association.
 
Fred Forbes, our addition architect; Randy McClelland, consultant
engineer for the East State Street widening project; and I met to
coordinate the early planning for cooperation between the two
projects.  These two projects may well be under construction at the
same time.  Our project will be ready to begin construction by early
spring 2002.
 
I will present our GIS to the Meigs County Rotary Club next month.
The new Meigs County Engineer, Eugene Tripplett has expressed an
interest in GIS and asked that we tell them about our experience to
date.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for
March 15, 2001 at 10:00 a.m. in the ILGARD conference room.
 
I attach an article about Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) being used
by Howard County, Maryland to track the location of their snowplowing
routes.  A similar system is currently being planned for our County
E-911 vehicles, and perhaps we can eventually utilize that same
technology for our county snowplowing operation.
 
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of
Athens County's future.
 
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator
555 East State Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone: (740) 593-5514
Fax:   (740) 592-4616
E-mail: astanley@frognet.net