February 28, 1999
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
We received our completed Trimble Township parcel conversion pilot project
from GeoOne. I have provided the data to ILGARD for a quality control
check, addition of further text attributes, and incorporation of the data
as part of our Countywide parc el data conversion project.
ILGARD has completed our Bern Township line work, and currently is fitting
scans for Ames Township. After one last review of the Dover Township data
and a check with the Auditor's staff, that Township should be complete.
We received several data files from ILGARD, including F.E.M.A. flood maps,
O.D.N.R. Soil Conservation Survey, and Census Tiger 95 data which will
overlay our parcel maps being developed by ILGARD.
Dave Lovett, Dave Owen, John Branner, and I met with Richard Borst, Randall
Bare, and Tony Henderson from Cole-Layer-Trumble Company. We discussed our
desire to link the Auditor's CAMA database to the tax plat maintenance
computer and eventually to our overall enterprise GIS. Richard explained
that the link needed in the Auditor's system will best be accomplished
under CLT's Integrated Assessment System (IAS) version 4.0, since this
version has a full graphic interface rather than the characte r based
version 2.5. CLT has accomplished such a link in an application in
Colorado.
CLT can also furnish a public Internet access for the Auditor using IAS
version 2.5 and will give Dave a proposal to accomplish this, but they
continue to recommend upgrading to the IAS version 4.0 for the best long
term solution for the Auditor's ap praisal operation, and will provide Dave
with a proposal to accomplish the upgrade. They do not recommend a
architecture based upon modems.
Rather, they feel an intranet among the County, City, and University, and
a connection to the Internet is the best architecture base. Along these
lines Dave Lovett and I discussed the need to get the Courthouse/Annex
network ready by installing cabl e among all the offices. Richard agreed
to give Dave some specifications on what will be needed, and Intox may be
contacted for a price to install the cable and connection devices. I may
attend a future meeting with the courthouse/annex network com mittee.
CLT also discussed their ability to host our eventual GIS Internet
application. We should consider this possibility alongside our other
hosting options of doing it as a County function or with ILGARD hosting
the site.
We reconvened our meeting with CLT at the offices of ILGARD, where we met
with Mike Finney, J.B. Hoy, and Donald Weekly, ILGARD Systems Manager.
Mike and J.B. provided an update of ILGARD's ongoing work for us, including
the technique ILGARD is using to fit the plat scans to the orthophotos.
Dave Owen and Richard Borst agreed to provide CAMA data for Trimble, Dover,
and Ames Townships to Mike Finney for use with the plat digitizing work.
Richard also agreed to provide additional information about tax plat
maintenance templates available for ArcInfo, ArcView, and AutoCAD Map.
Jeff Hansen from Farragut Systems, Inc., Colorado, (a partner of CLT)
called me to discuss their experiences in tax plat maintenance software.
He will send me more information on programs they have developed for
others.
Our AutoCAD Users Group met. Ron Lucus and John Branner demonstrated
their use of AutoCAD Map on their current projects. Greg Wright gave a
demonstration of AutoCAD paper space and model space applications. They
plan to meet again at 5:30 p.m. on March 2nd at the County Engineer's
Office at 555 East State. The topic will be using the Hydrology Program
Module that is available within AutoCAD. They offer an open invitation to
anyone interested in sharing AutoCAD and related applications infor mation.
John Branner, J.B. Hoy, and I evaluated the Cedra AVParcel demo to see if
we should consider purchasing the Avparcel software for use as our tax
parcel maintenance software. We have decided to further pursue the ESRI
Charlotte ArcInfo Parcel Templat e reported in the December 1998 GIS
Progress Report. This template is due out this Spring and we feel that
this is an important decision which warrants more time and research.
ESRI is also considering purchasing the rights to an existing third party
parcel maintenance template currently selling for $8,000.00 per seat, and
offering it for free to users of ESRI ArcInfo software. This also could be
a possibility for our system.
EmergiTech and Digital Information Systems are progressing with our E-911
project. This project is on schedule and is now 42% complete. Water
course and water body features have been completed for Ames Township.
Railroad corridor and miscellaneous transportation feature (power lines,
gas lines, and pipe lines) mapping is nearing completion for the entire
county. Building structure location mapping from orthophotos has been
completed for Trimble Township and continues for the other townships.
Road centerline digitizing has been completed.
I met with Option 1, a new GIS company from Oswego, Illinois. Tom Woltz
(formerly with Jackson County) has teamed up with Krista Koster (formerly
with J&E Associates) and together they are offering various GIS services.
We will keep them in mind for possible assistance in the future.
Bryan Fulbright is the City Manager of Thomasville, North Carolina.
They are beginning to look at developing a basic GIS and called us for
information. They have worked with GeoOne in the past, and were referred
to us as a reference. It is always interesting to compare ideas with other
jurisdictions who are working on similar projects. They are using AutoCAD
Map presently.
Our Steering Committee will meet next on March 18th at 10:00 a.m. in the
Ohio University Facilities Management Conference Room. Jeff Ditty will
make a presentation of GIS work being accomplished at the Athens County
Health Department.
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of Athens
County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator