Assessor makes case for GIS overhaul in county

Yahoo

2 days ago

Last week, when dispatchers pulled up their computer system to dispatch for an emergency, they were left in the dark with no information. The culprit? A crash to Crawford County's geographic information services (GIS), which provides information to the computer-aided dispatch system.
Although the GIS system, known as Esri, has been crashing at maximum capacity, assessor and GIS tech Janet Courson didn't know its immediate implications.
'I did not realize how important that was to them until last week when they didn't have it,' she said at a work session with the county commissioners on Wednesday. 'Initially we were going to say let's just let it fix itself over the weekend hopefully, and then they said, no we can't do that, it needs fixed now.'
The assessment office made its plea on Wednesday to ratify a $39,000 contract with Civic Vanguard, a company that would fix the GIS issues. It would be paid for with the budgeted $35,000 for GIS and some wireless funding, according to Commissioner Eric Henry.
Courson explained the proposal for Civic Vanguard has two parts.
The first addresses the infrastructure of the current GIS system and its fragility. GIS is a computer-based system that works using layers. Currently, the county has so many layers that the system is at capacity and cannot intake any information, causing it to time out and create issues.
Civic Vanguard would simplify data and increase capacity.
'The other thing that they need to address is the fact that Esri is ending the current system that sets up all of our web apps,' Courson said. 'So the property search, the zoning, the election districts, everything will go away as of the second quarter of 2026 unless we migrate everything over to the new software they're providing, and we need help doing that.'
Civic Vanguard would work with the information technology department to redo the servers, ensuring a seamless GIS system that handles their current infrastructure and will suit future needs.
Henry seemed optimistic about the vote to ratify the expense, which will take place at Wednesday's meeting.
'We don't want to hesitate and want to make sure that you have your tools,' Henry said. 'We appreciate all the work you're doing.'
Commissioners also heard from the planning office about the Construction Industry Workforce Program, in which high school students receive training from local companies, including Ferguson Construction Company, Vogt Heating & Cooling, and MG Electric Services.
'The first year that we did the training program, we had nine participants, two were juniors,' said Zachary Norwood, county planning director. 'Of the seven that were seniors, we retained five with employers who are still here today, working with their employers. The next round, or this current year's round, we had six folks, all six signed, all six are rotating here.'
Commissioners will vote on reimbursing the companies that participated for training wages from the Whole Home Repair Program fund.
During comments, commissioners noted they were in the process of hand-counting 2 percent of the election votes, as required, to certify that results are accurate. Hand-counting votes is more time-intensive and leads to mistakes, so if anything, the process exemplifies the value of electronic voting equipment, commissioners said.
The next meeting will be held Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners conference room in the courthouse.