Athens County
                    Cooperative Land Administration
                    and Information Mapping system
 
May 22, 2005
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
 
Commissioners:
 
The GIS Technical User's Committee met:  We discussed our plan to
migrate from our current Coverage GIS data structure to a Spatial
Database Engine (SDE) and Geo-Database data structure.  Previously
using Microsoft Access as a database pilot project, our recent shift
to Microsoft Standard Query-based Language (SQL) as part of our
migration has demonstrated the sheer robustness, multiple edit
environments, and more efficient data transfer of SQL.  Our next
Technical Users Meeting will tentatively include a visit to our GIS
from OGRIP
(Ohio Geographically Referenced Information Program).
 
The GIS Steering Committee met:  Chuck Hart is continuing to become
familiar with GIS and is working on a proposal to create a central
Ohio University GIS Coordination Office.  ILGARD has been suggested as
a central Ohio University GIS Office.  Howard Fokes reports that Ohio
University Facilities Management continues to work on a campus-wide
Utilities and Outdoor Space application.  Facilities Management and
Renovation will be merging with Facilities Planning.  Don Poole and
Tracy White reported that the Tuppers-Plains Water District is
becoming familiar with their new GPS receiver and plotter.  They may
be interested at some point in joining with Athens County in a bulk
software maintenance agreement.  JB Hoy reported on the ILGARD project
with Le-Ax Water District to link their Water Line Scans with their
Location Index Maps and Customer Billing Data.  This summer, Le-Ax
plans to locate by GPS methods all their Water Taps.  The ILGARD
project with the Athens County Auditor's Office is progressing.
A new Operating System Version 4.0 download of all the County CAMA
data has been completed.  A new operations website for the County
Engineer's Department will be created by ILGARD once a contract is
completed.  Fayette County has agreed to contract with ILGARD to
develop their parcel layer.  Ken provided a draft disclaimer
for use on our parcel layer webpage.
 
Morgan County is interested in developing a GIS for their County.
Representatives from their Office of Soil and Water Conservation,
and County Engineer's Office visited our GIS recently.
Soon they will visit our Emergency Communications E-911 Dispatch
Mapping Application.
 
We provided additional analysis and maps to the County Commissioners
for use in lobbying for a large coal mine to be considered for
location in Athens County.
 
We received our new Land Use/Land Cover data from ODNR.
It is available as a download from our GIS Website.
 
ESRI has announced that ArcGIS version 9.1 will soon be shipping.
We will receive all new updated software because we are current
on our software maintenance.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting will be held July 21, 2005
at 10:00 A.M. in the ILGARD conference room.  Our next GIS Technical
User's Committee meeting will be held June 16, 2005 at 10:00 A.M.
in the ILGARD conference room.
 
Sincerely,
Archie Stanley - GIS Coordinator
555 East State Street - Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone (740) 593-5514 - Fax (740) 592-4616
E-mail: 
astanley@AthensCountyGovernment.com