Athens County
                    Cooperative Land Administration
                    and Information Mapping system
 
November 30, 2000
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
                                RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
 
Work continues by ILGARD on our Parcel Conversion, and Web Server
Projects.   Lee and Lodi have been scanned.  Lee has been registered
and rectified and is now in the process of digitizing.  Canaan and
Alexander have been fit for the last time and PIN's will be put in
starting next week.  We will have 6 students working over break on the
line attributes, annotation, and PIN's.  Our new GIS web site
utilizing ArcIMS software on our new server is scheduled to be
operational next month and we plan to have several townships parcel
data on our GIS web site this year.
 
I committed $3,000 of our ILGARD contract toward a joint ILGARD/Athens
County purchase of a large bed scanner.  Athens County will have
access to this important piece of GIS equipment for the life of the
scanner.
 
Jeff Ditty and J.B. Hoy are in the initial stages of forming a local
ArcView Users Group.
 
Progress continues by E-911 and SEOEMS on development of an Automated
Vehicle Locator (AVL) system through the use of GPS and radio
transmission technology for Athens County.
 
I met with the Commissioners to discuss plans for the Engineer/GIS
Addition.  We will proceed with the A/E design of the Addition with
construction scheduled for 2002.
 
I met with the Commissioners to discuss our GIS budget for 2001.
I shifted all funding previously requested for personnel into
requested funding for contracts with ODNR (land Use/Cover) and ILGARD
(completion of parcel conversion, bringing property splits up to date,
and operation of our GIS map web site).  I requested that E-911
funding previously designated for the ILGARD contract for 2001 be
placed in a separate budget line item and designated for equipment for
our GIS addition scheduled for construction in 2002.
 
I attended an excellent ESRI GIS Implementation Seminar at Deer Creek.
Athens County Health Department representatives Chuck Hammer, Jeff
Ditty, and Brad McInturf, also attended.  As usual, a lot of
information was gained from the seminar, as well as exchanged among
the participants.  The theme was that GIS implementation should be an
incremental process with a recommended strategy of "small wins"
implemented gradually to build a reputation for success.  Their
recommendations paralleled our exp erience in developing our GIS
project.
 
We learned a great deal more about two extensions being developed by
ESRI and their business partners.  ArcParcel will be a robust parcel
maintenance extension to be released with ArcInfo version 8.2 and
ArcSurvey will be an extension to allow direct inclusion of
surveyor's measurement data in the attributes of the parcel, and will
be released also as a part of ArcInfo 8.2.  These two improvements
come at a perfect time for inclusion in our GIS project.
 
We also saw demonstrations of new ESRI templates (specialized software
running in cooperation with ESRI GIS software) for Public Works,
Parcel Editing, Emergency Management, and Zoning.  I have a CD that
includes these templates, if anyone wishes to borrow it.
 
The new ESRI generation of ArcGIS software is scheduled for release in
the second quarter of 2001.  It includes a new advanced version of
ArcView 8.2 (the present ArcView 3.2 software will continue to be
offered), new "ArcEditor" software with functionality placing it
between ArcView 8.2 and ArcInfo 8.2, and ArcInfo 8.2 Desktop and
Workstation versions.
 
Our GIS Steering Committee met:
 
Bob Eichenberg has a Hocking College intern modifying soils data for a
Health Department project.  OU Cartography has finished about half of
the village utility location project.  Bob is seeking an estimate from
Cartography to locate fire hydrants, as requested by Doug Bentley.
John Branner reported that work is progressing on the County Engineer
Section Corner location project.  John is getting an estimate for
having our non-image County data compressed using ER Mapper software.
Howard Fokes and Daniel Michalec reported that their utility location
work is finished and they are now maintaining the data with any new
information.  They are purchasing a larger computer for this
application.  Also, Environmental Health is interested in developing
an application to track chemical storage locations and fume hoods.
 
I met with Jill Thompson, Athens County Auditor, and Pat Brown, Dave
Owen, Tammi Goeglein, and Ken Highland of the Auditor's Office to
bring the new Auditor up to date on our GIS development progress.
Jill expresses a high level of interest, as do her employees, in the
benefits that GIS will bring to several areas of the Auditor's
operation.  J.B. Hoy will provide an update on the parcel conversion
project for the Auditor's Office next month.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for January 18,
2000 at 10:00 a.m. in the Facilities Management conference room.
 
I attach articles about LIDAR (Light detection and ranging) technology
and asset management and planning in Beverly Hills.
 
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of
Athens County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
 
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator
555 East State Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
Phone (740) 593-5514
Fax (740) 592-4616
E-mail: astanley@frognet.net