Mass Towns on GIS Map
The Eagle Tribune reports that Andover, a town north of Boston known for big homes and green lawns, expects to begin charging $75 per CD of GIS data, $100 for a DVD, something local towns typically do not do. The main requests for data, considered to be from “the most extensive” GIS in the region, with aerial imagery from 1998(!), come from “physical engineers,” says the article. By law towns can’t make money off the data, but many charge to cover the cost of creating the CDs. For example:
Chelsea $50 to $100
Newton $50 to $100
Weymouth $50 to $100
Andover $75 (proposed)
Cambridge $75
Amherst $50
Wellesley $50
Concord $35
Falmouth $35
Natick $25
Reading $25
Wayland $25
Newburyport $3
Out in the western part fo the state, in Amherst, news of an $80,000 grant from ESRI and Stratus have GIS updates plans in motion. Amherst will received one of 10 grants from the program, which offered a total of $814,000. The Republican reports, “the money will pay for computer software and hardware that will take the town’s Web-based GIS to the next level, allowing for Web-based data editing and advanced analysis.”
