September 30, 1999
 
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
 
                         RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
 
Commissioners:
 
EmergiTech and Digital Information Systems are progressing with our
E-911 project.  This project is on schedule and is now 79% complete.
The completion date for this project is January 31, 2000.  Mark Dann
(who coordinated our project) is now working with ESRI-St. Louis.  Dave
Anderson is now our Digital Information contact person for our EmergiTech
E-911 Project.  Digital Information needs address ranges for incorporated
areas in order to complete their work.  Ron Lucus will send them the addr
ess ranges for the City of Athens.  As ILGARD completes the parcel
conversion for each village, they will send the parcel data linked to the
parcel ID.  Dave Owen will send CAMA addresses linked to parcel ID.  The
CAMA address data (which is also linked to parcel ID) will be used to
establish a link from the parcels to addresses and the work may be
completed.
 
ILGARD is working to create an Ames Township Pilot Project.  This Pilot
Project will demonstrate and evaluate the Auditor's CAMA data combined with
parcel, census, and orthophoto data.  We are also planning an ArcView class
for December using the Pilot Project data.  Anyone interested should give
me a call.
 
I delivered a copy of our "Mr. Sid" Orthophotos to Chuck Hammer.  He made
additional copies for other staff members.  Jeff Ditty is very happy with
the photos and is working each day with them doing several site assessments
and septic system locations.  I also delivered an additional copy of the
CD to Doug Bentley.
 
ESRI COGO key codes have been delivered to Matt Sayers and Ken Highland in
the Auditor's Tax Plat Office.  As soon as their network card arrives and
is installed, the Auditor's parcel maintenance workstation will be enabled.
With arrival of the Pilot Project noted above, they may begin to experiment
with parcel splitting procedures using NovaLIS Parcel Editor software.
 
Soils data, and a one-mile section grid created by J. B. Hoy, have been
installed on Tammi's computer.  The soils overlay and reference grid,
combined with the installation last month of ArcView software and
orthophotos, and a very brief ArcView training session for Tammi, have
provided the Auditor's office with an automated CAUV analysis tool.
 
J.B. Hoy and I visited the Clermont County Auditor's Office GIS.
Tom Harner, Auditor's GIS Coordinator, gave us a summary of their
installation and a tour of their facilities.  Tom has three employees that
work part time on GIS.  Clermont County has 80,000 parcels, or about twice
as many as Athens County.  They have four public access computers running
ArcView, and maintain parcels and GIS data using ARC/INFO.  They also
maintain a Map Objects application.  We obtained valuable information
about a GIS that was implemented a few years ago with the same GIS software
we are using, and now have a valuable contact to seek advice and compare
methods, problems, and solutions.  We discussed a concept of "registering"
Internet users of GIS as a security measure and Tom suggested that we look
at the system Lucus County is using.
 
Our GIS Steering Committee meeting was held in the O.U. Facilities
Management conference room:
 
Dave Lovett and Ken Highland have arranged to have the parcel maintenance
workstation network card installed and configured by the consultant that
works for the County Recorder, Julia Michael-Scott.  This will enable Ken
to receive digital images of scanned deeds directly from the Recorder
rather than always having to go upstairs to find and copy a deed.
Dave reported that his office now has a new PC on every desk.
 
Hocking College student, Matt Sayers is working with Ken, updating the
manual plat maps.
 
John Kotwoski reported that some problems have been encountered in planning
for placing our network conduit under the sidewalk in the Court Street
renovation project scheduled to begin this Summer.
 
Gary North reported that Ohio University will be able to offer additional
GIS financial assistance over the coming two years as we begin to design
and implement our central GIS system.
 
Sherwood Wilson and Howard Fokes reported that they are continuing their
program of digitally linking all available utility data to their maps.
They are also locating trees and other landscaping features with associated
attribute data (i.e. species of tree).  Dan McKalick is working to locate
these points with GPS equipment and attaching associated attribute data for
use in GIS.  They are also obtaining, verifying, and storing "as-built"
campus renovation drawings from consultants.
 
Dave Lovett has obtained favorable bids for performing the next County-wide
re-appraisal project, and indicated that this may result in additional
financial assistance for our GIS.
 
Chuck Hammer stated his intention to provide GIS financial assistance from
his budget as soon as he can.  He cited the wonderful success his Office is
experiencing with the GIS applications they have implemented.  He indicated
that his Department is saving money, as well as getting more work
accomplished as a result of GIS.
 
He said the Health Department is very happy with the new Mr. Sid
Orthophotos, and are using GIS extensively to document illegal dumpsites,
mosquito complaints, sanitary layouts, water wells, and to make site
evaluation maps for subdivision review.  They plan to use GIS to store,
analyze, and present data about the recent Health Survey they performed.
Also, they are analyzing the location of immunizations administered to
identify target areas that may need additional coverage.  They plan to scan
all available documents regarding a given site and also take digital
photographs of the site, and then link the images to the corresponding
parcel, storing everything digitally for future reference.  A copy of some
of the Health Department GIS work is attached.
 
John Branner reported that he is continuing to build a complete County
bridge database, has become familiar with GPS methods, and plans to convene
the AutoCAD Users Group to discuss standards for drawing CAD layers.
He is also planning for upgrading to AutoCAD Map 2000 software.
 
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for
November 18, 1999 in the Facilities Management Conference Room.
 
Several months ago I distributed a glossary of general GIS terms.
Since then we have selected ESRI software for our GIS and expanded our
GIS knowledge and discussions.  I have enclosed with this progress report,
a new, more detailed glossary.  Published by ESRI, this glossary includes
virtually every GIS term we now encounter.
 
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of
Athens County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
 
 
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator