Athens County
                  Cooperative Land Administration and
                      Information Mapping system
 
January 31, 2001
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
                                RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
 
Commissioners:
 
Thank you for approving our Athens County GIS Budget for 2001.
 
Doug Bentley, E-911 Chief is proposing a policy to the County
Commissioners concerning procedures for distributing computerized
data.  Recently a company proposed to pay Athens County for data that
they intend to redistribute for profit.  We see this as a precedent
setting action deserving full attention as to whether or not to sell
them the data and setting criteria for purchasers to follow in any
redistribution of the data, with appropriate disclaimers placed on
use of the data.
 
Our new soils layer is being developed by ODNR (funded through a
partnership of the Athens County Engineer and the Athens County Soil
and Water Conservation District) and is scheduled to be completed
December 31, 2002.
 
I have finalized and signed our contract with the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources (ODNR) to create new Land Use/Land Cover data
layers.  The County Auditor certified the availability of funds in the
2001 Athens County GIS Budget and we will process the payment to ODNR.
By finalizing our contract now, we ensure early development of our
layers.  Several other counties are competing for timely development
of their layers but our schedule is now confirmed.   These layers will
be of significant benefit to the County Auditor, Planner, and Health
Department as well as generally to all GIS partners and users.  These
layers are scheduled for completion by December 31, 2003.  The work
will include high-level (1" = 2000') aerial photography of Athens
County and will utilize our electronic parcel data layer
 
We held a GIS Steering Committee meeting:
 
J.B. Hoy reported on the ILGARD Parcel Conversion Project. We have
only Carthage Township remaining on the line work portion.  We are 80%
complete on parcel identification numbers for the County.  Line
attributes and text work is over 50% complete for the County.  They
are tagging problem areas for resolution, and a meeting to resolve the
problems will be held next month.  We have six townships with all
initial conversion work complete and plan to have those on our GIS web
site by April.  The projected completion date for the initial parcel
conversion is December 31, 2001.  Then we will begin to catch-up the
splits and we project that work to be completed by June 31, 2002.
Howard Fokes and Daniel Michalec, OU Facilities Management continue
with field checking and updating data for utility work and new
construction projects.
 
Jim Green, OU Cartography is developing a web site for their flood
plain management application, and will link their site to our GIS web
site.  Jim reported that the OU Cartography contract with the County
to locate village utilities is nearing completion.
 
OU Facilities Planning needs map data for the soccer/rugby fields area
adjacent to Stimson Avenue and the Hocking River, and it appears that
Ron Lucas will be able to provide them with the needed data.  John
Kotowski is also looking for any available data on the Hebbardsville
State Farm site and J.B. Hoy will provide that data.
 
Gary North welcomed Jill Thompson, our new County Auditor to our
Steering Committee and her support for our GIS project.  He stated
that OU would soon consider expanding GIS efforts into several
University operations.
 
Ron Lucas reported that the City of Athens has purchased a new server
and ESRI ArcIMS, to make the City data available to their departmental
supervisors.  They have created a new Land Use Map and applied 16
zoning and land use categories.
 
Ken Highland, County Auditor's office is anxious to receive training
later this year on ESRI Parcel Maintenance software as soon as ESRI
releases ArcInfo version 8.2 and ILGARD finishes our parcel conversion
project.
 
Jill Thompson, County Auditor stated that she is looking forward to
the benefits GIS will bring to her Office and will provide assistance
in resolving any problem areas.
 
We set as a GIS Steering Committee goal to have new aerial photography
flown over Spring Break, 2002.  OU will contribute financially to that
goal, Ron Lucas will speak with City officials about their
contribution, and I will submit for funding from the County
Commissioners in 2002 as well as seek contributions from other County
office holders, and villages.  As part of the goal we wish to consider
satellite and LIDAR technology, have new orthophotography developed,
and ensure that the data will support future topographic and
planimetric mapping.
 
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 Barnstable, Massachusetts providing their
property data online.
 
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