Pike County, IL will get new aerial imagery after the board approved a $99,000 contract with Sidwell Corporation. Not big news, but this is interesting: “A $25 GIS document fee should generate enough to cover the contract cost within 18 months. Board members approved the fee, but still need to adopt an ordinance to put the fee in place.” That may not be a bad idea as the GIS folks suggested imagery be taken every four years. The last imagery was taken in 1998! Or, maybe that’s another reason for Imagery for the Nation?
- Quincy Herald
York County, NY was looking for a surveyor, typically an elected position. But no one ran. So, they put the part time job up for bid and received eight proposals including one from the current surveyor. Some members of the board felt it best to stay with the same person, but the other firm reps raised some interesting responses:
Marsh, representing Kirkham Michael, was in attendance and asked to address the board.
“I want to remind you that Kirkham Michael is in business in York County, we have an office in York,” Marsh said. “Surveying and engineering is our business, we don’t do it on the side. Our people work in York County, our vehicles are serviced in York County. Maybe the cost is a little higher but that’s also because we carry liability insurance. This isn’t a part-time job for us.”
“I think that Rex (Heiden) [current surveyor] has done a good job over the years,” Bolte said, “but I also see the face of surveying changing,” with the use of more complex mapping, technology, use of GIS, etc. “Also, how are you handling liability issues now?”
No immediate selection was made.
- York News Times
On Wednesday, the city of Lawrence, KS launched a beta of its interactive map to extend access to data to the public. But how does the ArcGIS Server powered site compare to Google Maps?
“If you need to get driving (or) transit directions, or the location of a particular business, stick with Google or Bing maps,” said Micah Seybold, the city’s GIS coordinator, in a blog posted at the city’s website, LawrenceKS.org. “The city map is going to have city of Lawrence information too detailed and specific for the big commercial maps.
- Lawrence Journal World
The Janesville Wisconsin Police Department is launching a website, with a map, that publicly identifies repeat drunken drivers (five or more convictions) in Janesville. Right now there are 192 dots on the map. “The department said it’s the first agency in the United States to launch Project Sober Streets.” The idea is that mapping the offenders will help stop drunk driving. The data in use is all public. The technology? GeoCortex. My experience: “Geocortex Essentials Application Error The ArcGIS Server Local map service ‘OverviewMap’ with definition ‘(default)@OVMap’ is invalid or currently unavailable. Underlying cause: Exception of type ‘System.OutOfMemoryException’ was thrown.”
- WISC
