Athens County
                 Cooperative Land Administration
                  and Information Mapping system

June 30, 2001

Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
                               RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:

We are taking action to move things out of the area of our
Engineer/GIS addition to allow a smoother construction schedule
next year.  We are relocating our water, sewer, and natural gas
lines, relocating our a/c compressor and emergency generator,
and have removed some shrubbery and trees.  The wood from the
trees is being milled and dried, and delivered to our cabinet-
maker for future furniture for the addition.  We will replace the
larger trees with smaller flowering trees more compatible with
the site.  I am meeting monthly or more often with our Architect.
We have discussed windows, lighting, computer lines, natural
lighting, floodplain requirements, utilities, elevation data, and
cooperation with the City of Athens and their East State Street
widening project also scheduled for construction next year.  The
plans are coming together very well and we are on schedule to bid
the construction of the addition project in January 2002 and
begin construction by April 2001.  We anticipate the construction
to take approximately 14 months.

As discussed at the June 26, 2001 commissioner's meeting, I plan
to apply some of our 2001 GIS budget, $10,000 from the Health
Department, $20,000 from the County Engineer and $50,000 from
E-911 toward new orthophotos and topographic layers.  Funding
from Ohio University and the City of Athens will also be applied
in 2001 for this project.  Then, similar amounts will be applied
in 2002 and 2003 to complete the project.  Hocking College,
Nelsonville, and county villages, will be contacted to
determine if they are interested in obtaining optional better
resolution orthophotos for their areas, because the base project
will be countywide at a recommended rural scale of 400 feet to
the inch.

Our Orthophotos Sub-committee met to begin the process of
developing a consultant selection process.  We discussed the
selection process and scope of services needed for our project.
We plan to have a consultant selected and working on our project
by September this year.  Our goal is to have orthophotography
developed in 2002 and topography developed in 2003.  By spreading
the costs associated with this project over 2001, 2002, and 2003,
and divided among several participants, it will be less strain on
everyone's budget.

I met with the Business Manager, Treasurer, and two staff members
from the Athens City School District and introduced them to our
GIS applications.  We discussed a pilot project to assist them
with mapping elementary school boundary lines and bus stops.
This is our second outreach effort to involve local agencies.
We hope later this year to introduce our GIS to other school
districts in Athens County.  ILGARD has agreed to assist with
this effort.

Darren and I met with the Athens City School District Business
Manager and Transportation Supervisor to begin planning their bus
route pilot project.  Maps of their bus stops were made available
and Darren has entered the location data.  The pupil data system
they use is administered through the Southeastern Ohio Voluntary
Education Cooperative (SEOVEC), and we also met with the SEOVEC
Director of Computer Services to coordinate the necessary data
exchange.

ILGARD has completed line attributes for 12 townships and the
City of Athens, Parcel Identification Numbers for 12 townships,
text for 11 townships, and converted coverages for 3 townships to
shapefiles.  Five townships will be displayed using the
shapefile format on ArcIMS software as our expanded parcel pilot
project on our GIS website in July.

I visited Vinton County as a guest of ILGARD, to discuss Athens
County's GIS experience.  People we met with were David M. Boothe
and Lisa Bentley from the Chamber of Commerce; Jim Harper and
Mike Bledsoe, County Commissioners; Ron Sherritt, County
Engineer, and Barbara Radikin, County Auditor.  We presented GIS
concepts and our Athens County GIS experience.  We were well
received and I believe that Vinton County will begin to chart
their GIS course.

Ron Lucas reports that the City of Athens has several GIS layers
posted on their web site.  Using ArcIMS their department heads
are using data on streets, buildings, sidewalks, guardrails,
sewers, and water lines.  They have completed 85% of their
utility pole and sign inventory.  Attributing depth and grade of
their sanitary sewer lines is underway and they are planning to
develop a crime data application.  Recently Geo Decisions, Inc.,
a Pittsburgh based company, is completing a GIS Needs Study for
the City.  The City has acquired ArcGIS 8.1 and Spatial Analysis
and 3D Analyst software packages.

Our next Steering Committee meeting will be held on
July 19th at 10:00 a.m. in the ILGARD conference room.

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