Local GIS Tidbits
San Juan Capistrano (California) officials rejected a $11,000 proposal to put GPS devices in police cars. In addition to tracking location, the devices were also to be used to evaluate smog and in total save the city some $15,000. Said one official of the plan: “I have a real problem with this,” she said. “This is an HBO. I don’t think it’s something we really, really need.”
Lewis and Clark County, MT and Helena city officials are interested in details of a new transport district, not only to determine where new public transportation might be, but to determine how many people live within it, to ensure questions regarding the topic make it on the ballot.
The number of residents is important, because signatures from 20 percent of the affected voters will be needed to simply add the district to the Nov. 2 ballot. ...“GIS will find new financial information — as to what the mills would equal, the value, as well as the number of voters in the district,” [County Commissioner Andy] Hunthausen said. “And then the number we would need to get on a petition.”
The Official Map of Temple Texas, a lithograph about 36 by 32 inches dated 1892 is the newest addition to the city’s GIS, but it may be a while before it’s made available. The map was donated by a collector and beside the regular challenges of scanning the old document, there is the challenge of converting the units of the day, the “vera” to feet, but local think they have it figured out.
