March 31, 1999
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
I had a conference call with people from Farragut Systems, Inc. ( a partner
of CLT) to discuss various methods of creating a tax plat maintenance
template under different software applications and creating a link between
our future GIS, the tax plat maintenance computer, and the CAMA data.
They have several good ideas, so I asked them to give me a letter proposal
for coming to Athens for one day for further in-depth discussion as well as
assessing our potential GIS configuration. They will com e during the
first week in April. In addition to discussions on several topics with me,
we will meet with ILGARD, the Auditor, and the City of Athens.
They confirm the difficulties that would be encountered to attempt to
create a dynamic link between the CAMA data and the tax plat maintenance
computer under CLT's version 2.5 software. They agree that:
Dave Lovett should consider upgrading to CLT version 4.0 CAMA software and
replacing the present terminals with computers which would allow making the
dynamic link.
In the meantime, we can work with the raw Oracle data from the CAMA system
directly in tax plat maintenance and GIS, by periodically transferring the
data that we need through magnetic tape media.
We were awarded a software grant from ESRI valued at $26,769.95:
We will receive a full ArcInfo software seat and floating license
($18,000.00); a copy of ArcView 3.1 software ($1,195.00); a Map Objects
Internet / Intranet Developers Kit with Internet Map Server ($7,495.00);
and one WEB Based Training: Introductio n to ArcView Series ($79.95).
The copy of ArcView and WEB Based training will go to our County Planning
Office. The ArcInfo seat, Map Objects Internet / Intranet Kit, and
Internet Map Server will eventually become part of our central GIS
location. We also may receive additional software through two ESRI
Business Partners: CarteGraph Systems, which provides public works
solutions, and NovaLIS Technologies, a land-records software development
company.
I will provide ESRI a performance report on the status of our GIS project
eleven months from now, as a condition of receiving the grant. Also ESRI
may use our Organization's name for press releases, and we agree to share
our data created with this g rant with other government agencies for no
more than the cost of reproduction media. We receive free software
maintenance for one year, and are responsible for maintenance costs
beginning in the second year.
We also may choose from optional extra cost items of Map Objects technical
support ($1,095.00), ArcInfo training ($1,400.00), and a "Studio Session"
customized for our GIS project ($5,500.00). This last item is held in the
ESRI St. Louis facility o r for additional cost can be held here if we so
desire. We won't consider the technical support until we have evaluated
the Map Objects software; we probably will not need the ArcInfo training
offer, and we will decide later if we need the studio se ssion and if so,
how and where to configure it.
Map Research Technologies Inc. (MRT), Rockford, Illinois, are providers of
digital mapping and GIS services. The Company has been in business for
three years and about one year ago Derrel W. Owens (formerly with J&E
Associates out of Chicago) joined the Company. They will send me
information about an AutoCAD template they have for tax plat maintenance,
and about computer GIS networking. We will keep them in mind for possible
future work.
The City of Athens received their 1 inch equals 100 feet orthophotography
from GeoOne. They allowed us to make a copy of the data, and we plan to
check with them and hopefully provide a copy to ILGARD. These higher
resolution orthophotos will be ve ry helpful as ILGARD produces our
City of Athens tax plat parcels.
I spoke with Charles Vanderwalt of Intox, Inc. Charles does computer
network development and maintenance for the City of Athens. He explained
to me that after a meeting this month with Media-One, he will be back in
contact with me to bring me up to date on the City's network and give me an
idea about establishing my Office as a network participant, as well as his
ideas for networking the County courthouse/annex and establishing a
connection between the County and City.
At the March County Elected Officials meeting, Garry Hunter gave an update
on the evolving City of Athens computer network.
Garry related that the City began their computer network development four
years ago in cooperation with Ohio University. About one year ago, the
City connected an underground fibre-optic cable to the County Prosecutor's
Office, thereby creating a hub for the entire County Annex and Courthouse
to link to the network. The County needs only to run cables from each
office to the hub, to enable the network. Each office will need to upgrade
to network ready computers, if they have not already done so. That is all
that is necessary for the County to come up to speed in networking.
He said that the City has implemented Internet web sites, internal and
external E-mail, bulletin ("chat") rooms to coordinate routine business
questions and answers (i.e. citizen input), and scheduling cooperation and
access among City officials. They are looking into video conferencing,
remote access via phone line connections (i.e. out of town access to office
files), and radio wave and satellite transmission over the Internet rather
than local cabling.
At a future meeting, an update will be provided from our County computer
network Committee. I look forward to our becoming networked. Our future
GIS network should operate over a joint City/County/University network, and
two thirds of the needed ne twork is already in place.
I attended the March 16th City of Athens computer communications network
committee meeting. They are changing to a less restrictive web site
development software, implementing a new file server separated from the
Internet for security purposes, considering upgrades to their service
lines, and experimenting with a new network operating system. I am
considering connecting to the network through a fibre-optic cable between
my office and the City Laboratory.
Our GIS Steering Committee met:
Mark Sullivan, County Commissioner attended the meeting and stated that he
was very interested in the GIS potential for development in Athens County.
Chuck Hammer and Jeff Ditty gave a presentation of GIS work ongoing at the
County Health Department. They are using MapInfo software and census Tiger
data to geocode and display several applications of environmental health
programs, epidemiological tracking, immunization reports, and community
health advisory programs. Their excellent presentation covered mapping of
home sewage disposal permits, food service operations, mosquito control,
illegal dump sites, campground and mobile home parks, flu immunization
data, Community Health Advisory Board members, planning and development
sites, and water well permits.
Ron Lucus presented new maps he has developed for the City of Athens GIS,
regarding mowing areas and project scheduling. They are working on using
GPS techniques for locating and sizing parks and locating several street
utility features.
Bob Eichenberg reported that he will have Dennis Brown, an O.U. Geography
student intern this summer who will assist with GIS efforts to be initiated
by the County Planning Office.
ILGARD continues with their work converting our parcels to digital format.
Dover Township is complete, they are adding additional text layers to
Trimble Township, and work is progressing on Ames Township.
EmergiTech and Digital Information Systems are progressing with our E-911
project. This project is on schedule and is now 47 % complete.
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting will be May 20, 1999 at 10:00 a.m.
in the O.U. Facilities Management conference room. I have invited Mark
Fiorello, Nelsonville City Manager, to attend this and future meetings on
behalf of Nelsonville and other County villages.
I plan to attend a free one day GIS conference with Doug Bentley, Chief of
Operations, Athens County E-911, in Charleston on April 20th. Randy Mace
will attend a similar conference in Columbus. The conferences are
sponsored by ESRI and introduce GIS concepts regarding local government. I
also plan to attend a two day GIS conference June 21st in Columbus,
sponsored by IKO.
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of Athens
County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator