Sacramento Green Map and other Government GIS News

...a new website that showcases Sacramento County’s green strategies, achievements and helpful information. The website – Green Sacramento County – features an interactive map to pinpoint green activity and provides constituents with green news, tips and resources.

You can choose different base maps including Google and Esri streets.

- Sacremento Press

The board [Coweta County, GA] approved an agreement with TomTom North America for GIS data. The county has agreed to provide the GIS data to the GPS and mapping companies for free in order to help speed the updates reflecting the new names of Walt Sanders Memorial Drive (International Park) and Walt Sanders Memorial Court (Enterprise Court).

- Times Herald

In 2011, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched the National Broadband Map (NBM), a tool local governments can use to determine the level broadband access in their communities. Join [National League of Cities] NLC and NTIA on January 25 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a webinar, entitled The National Broadband Map: An Economic Development Tool for Cities which will show how cities can use this tool and provide feedback so it can be further enhanced to suit their needs.

- NLC.org

[Ottawa/Carleton] OC Transpo [Ontario, CA] should open its bus-location data to outside programmers the same day it launches its own application to tell riders when their buses are due, says Councillor Stephen Blais, and he intends to present a motion to the city's transit commission at its next meeting on Thursday to force the company to do it.

- Ottawa Citizen

Finding Your Library in Suffolk County and other Government GIS News

In Suffolk County, NY, library budget allocations are tied to library card registrations, so it is important that residents (a) register and (b) do it in the right library. However, in Suffolk County, point "b" is not always so straightforward, because a library's service area is defined by school districts, township boundaries, and other confusing lines.

So, a federal libaray grant was used to develop a site to help people find their library and apply for a card. I'm so glad my city has a single library system (with three branches).

- Libaray Journal

Plows will have TomTom GPS devices, just like those sold in stores, programmed with each of the 217 snow plow routes, meaning all drivers will have to do is punch in the specific route number and just follow the voice commands. 

Keith Compton, the head of the county's [Montgomery County, MD] snow removal team, says the 300 or so TomToms were far less expensive than the automated vehicle locator system they contemplated buying: "These things are about $250 a piece. A full-blown AVL system is about $800,000."

- WAMU

The Data.Illinois.gov site will soon post more than 4,000 additional sets of data. Currently there are just several hundred sets.

The Illinois governor's office says it recently received federal government approval to post the new data that offers information related to Illinois compiled by several U.S. agencies.

Among the data are those from Census and EPA.

- WBEZ via @storm7