June 30, 1999
Athens County Commissioners
15 South Court Street, 2nd Floor
Athens, Ohio 45701
RE: Monthly GIS Progress Report
Commissioners:
Last month I described three configurations of ESRI software called Spatial
Database Engine. Spatial Database Engine (SDE) is an ESRI software
solution for managing and providing access to many types of spatial data.
I have obtained pricing information as follows:
Enterprise SDE provides open access and central management of shared
spatial data. The cost is $16,600 on the ESRI government schedule.
Workgroup SDE is for smaller organizations that need the functionality of
enterprise SDE and yet do not need to support a large number of clients.
The cost is $12,272.
ArcSDE is a special version of SDE that operates as an extension to
ArcInfo and adds the ability to serve ArcInfo coverages and data,
and ESRI shapefiles. The cost is $8,111.
This is pretty expensive software, so which, if any of these options we may
choose will have to wait until at least next year when we make a final
decision on our preferred Central GIS configuration. For now, I will
further research the least expensive option (ArcSDE) and report further
on it next month.
I ordered a COGO license to go with our ESRI grant copy of ArcInfo for use
with our free copy of NovaLIS parcel editor software. I may also request
two additional free copies of the parcel editor software through our
ongoing ESRI ArcInfo maintenance. However, the NovaLIS maintenance cost is
$1,500 annually, so we will wait to make this decision later. We may need
only the one license. I continue to evaluate and be impressed by the
Parcel Editor software. I hope to bring ESRI - St. Louis to Athens and
train Ken Highland, John Branner, J.B. Hoy, and I on the Parcel Editor
software at ILGARD's computer facility. This may happen in August if the
price comes in favorably.
Our GIS Progress Review Report from Jeff Hanson of Farragut Systems is
attached. Recommendations include the need to implement a pilot project
focusing on end user requirements, data usage, data access, database
integration, and network performance; a GIS data dictionary; ESRI's
'Librarian' to manage the parcel database; an orthophoto 'Image Catalog';
and general hardware and network specifications.
EmergiTech and Digital Information Systems are progressing with our
E-911 project. This project is on schedule and is now 63 % complete.
The completion date for this project is January 31, 2000.
Lenny Eliason gathered information regarding the number of County employees
to potentially use a County computer network. I mapped out the location of
all County building sites, and delivered the data and map to Tom Reid at
CNS. He has agreed to provide us with an estimate of costs involved in
networking each site.
Lenny and I also met with CNS, the City of Athens, the Chamber of Commerce,
AEP, and GTE regarding the potential to coordinate installation of network
cable as part of work to be accomplished this summer on the Court Street
upgrade project. Phase One of this project will be mainly the south end of
Court Street and should be in place this Fall. Phase Two will be the next
block north on Court Street (including the Courthouse) and is scheduled for
completion in the Fall of 2000. Agreement was reached to include a conduit
for a University-County-City, fibre-optic line for our network development.
The University will fund the $11,000 cost for the conduit. This is a
generous step by O.U. that directly benefits Athens County. Hopefully,
Athens County will be able to begin to cable the Courthouse, 15 South
Court, and 13 West Washington over the next year so as to be able to take
immediate advantage of the Court Street fibre-optic cable in the Fall of
2000.
Melissa Fowler gave CNS staff and I a tour of the upper floors of 13 West
Washington Street. This site is under consideration for hosting a Network
Access Point for the University-City-County network, and as a central GIS
location. Our first though ts are that it is a promising site. Ted
Jacobson has a lot of knowledge about the building and I put him in touch
with CNA personnel to share his knowledge.
Dave Lovett is looking into a public access system through CLT to display
CAMA data as a web site. The license for this system could also serve to
host a future GIS and/or Land disk (digital pictures of homes listed in the
CAMA data). This will be an option we may consider over the next year.
I will research with CLT the additional GIS possibilities with this public
access system.
I signed a new contract with ILGARD which will carry our parcel data
conversion project through the end of this year. This project is scheduled
for completion in the Fall of 2000.
I arranged to receive a quote from Option One, Inc. for compressing our
orthophotos with 'Mr. Sid' software. This technique speeds retrieval,
reduces storage requirements, and allows more efficient network transfer
of the orthophotos.
WOUB conducted an interview with me regarding our GIS Project. ILGARD made
some excellent visual aids for my use at the interview. Last month I
interviewed with The Post, and the article was very professionally done and
well received. I hope to schedule additional media and service club
presentations to begin to showcase our work.
I am scheduled to make a GIS progress report presentation at the County
Elected Officials Luncheon on July 28th.
Ted Jacobson recommended that we give these GIS progress reports a wider
audience through the Auditor's web site and offered to do the web updating
work each month. Thanks to his efforts the reports are now posted monthly
on the Auditor's web site at http://www.seorf.ohiou.edu/~xx087.
Late this month Doug Bentley, Bob Troxel, Ron Lucus, and I will travel to
Gallia County to observe their E-911 Dispatcher Mapping System. Our E-911
Consultant EmergiTech developed the Gallia County system, so we will get a
great idea of how our sys tem will work.
Dave Lovett, Dave Owen, and I will travel early next month to Green County
to observe their GIS and Auditor's public access setup.
Our next GIS Steering Committee meeting will be July 15, 1999 at 10:00 a.m.
in the O.U. Facilities Management conference room.
Thank you for allowing me to coordinate this important aspect of Athens
County's future, and for your usual cooperation.
Archie Stanley
GIS Coordinator