In 1995, the Coles County GIS Committee was formed. In April 1998, the first public meeting on GIS took place. This was a positive meeting, and at the time, it became clear that Coles County would be one of the first Counties in East Central Illinois to implement a GIS.
In March 1999, Farnsworth and Wylie was hired as a GIS consultant to develop an implementation timetable and provide a GIS implementation estimate. After the plan was completed, the GIS Committee held another public meeting to discuss the plan and to get input from the community. Again, this was a positive meeting and in November 1999, the County decided to go forth with GIS. The plan was implemented to be completed in a four to five year period at a cost of nearly $980,000. In the same year, the County was awarded the ESRI Livable Communities Grant for an ArcInfo Software Package (Estimated grant for $30,000).
In June of 2000, Charleston and Mattoon were awarded the FEMA Project Impact grant for developing a GIS system with relation to floodplain mitigation. This grant included substantial seed money ($110,000) for Coles County GIS. Additional funds came from the Coles County General Fund ($404,638), Mattoon and Charleston ($20,000), and the County Highway Department ($136,500). These dedicated funds would become the foundation for the growing GIS.
In 2000, the County Highway Department completed a GPS layer composed of reference points to build the GIS upon. In November 2000, Coles County sent out a Request for Qualifications seeking out the best candidate to build a parcel map. In February 2001, Surdex Corporation and The Sidwell Company were hired to fly orthophotograpy and develop a cadastral map. In November of 2001, orthophotography was received from Surdex Corporation and in July 2003, the cadastral layer was received in its entirety.
From June 2003 to January 2005, GIS staff completed all parcel splits and discrepancies in the County. On October 30, 2003, GIS staff learned that the Department of Revenue had implemented Bulletin 810, a requirement of all counties to change the way they assess farmland. Bulletin 810, although nearly complete, will need to be continually updated in the future. In 2004, GIS staff learned that the General Accounting Standards Board (GASB) began requiring all Counties to track inventory. This would require that all structures in the County be identified. Using GPS to track all structures seemed feasible and staff began using GPS in 2005 to identify all bridges, signs, and culverts in the County. This is an ongoing project.
The State of Illinois was one of the first states to recognize the need for GIS and in the late 1990’s. They developed a Recording Fee specifically for GIS, with a base fee of three dollars. The County immediately implemented the GIS Recorders Fee at three dollars. In December 2003, the fee was raised to ten dollars and in February 2005, the fee was raised to $15 (sunsets” in the spring of 2008). The fifteen dollar fee gives GIS nearly $145,000 per year.
In 2002, Kelly Lockhart became the County GIS Manager. With the workload of discrepancies and splits, a GIS Technician was hired in 2005. GIS currently has two full-time employees and two interns that work fifteen hour workweeks during the school year and thirty hour workweeks during the summer.
The Next Steps
GIS faces a number of challenges in changing the way it does business to meet ever-growing needs. There are a number of immediate challenges, such as updating orthophotography and migrating to a new GIS data model that will support an enterprise implementation. See Appendix A for more information on planning and designing an enterprise GIS system. One short-term solution to reducing the map production workload in GIS is to implement an ArcIMS website solution that will allow County personnel to access GIS data directly. In addition to freeing resources in GIS, the Internet site would allow employees to help themselves immediately, without waiting for a hard copy map.
These next steps in the evolution of GIS from a map production shop to an enterprise wide tool will leverage the current investment in GIS data and applications and improve both the internal business process and customer service the County offers its citizens. This Strategic Plan is intended to lay the foundation for building an enterprise GIS and to initiate County-wide participation in designing solutions for the future.
Coles County recently hired Pictometry to fly orthophotography as well as oblique photography. The photography, when used with Pictometry's software will allow all County and Government agencies to view the photography and cadastral information.
Why does the County need GIS?
Coles County GIS and department personnel manage large and disparate data sets, many of which contain a spatial component, such as an address or location. GIS provides data management tools that utilize the geographic data to create meaningful information. From that information, creative solutions may be derived, making the best use of limited staff and financial resources. From those proposed solutions, County department heads can make confident, data-driven decisions.
For example, the County Highway Department currently has a database showing an ID number, condition, elevation, type, and other pertinent information that is relevant to all County owned bridges. Coles County GIS staff is currently in the process of mapping all bridge locations within the County using high-end GPS equipment. Once the points have been mapped, the information can then be tied to the existing database to give the Highway Department Engineer the opportunity to make decisions based on all of the available information. Not only will GIS help in decision making, but it ties two databases together, allowing the Engineer to make changes to only one database and not both. The GIS will help centralize data throughout the County.
Addresses are Geographic data – they are locations – and they are an essential part of the information the County manages. The Assessment Office and County GIS staff recognizes an immediate need to update and correct the existing address database. Once completed and implemented, the address database will provide a single source of addresses for the County, reducing errors and confusion. GIS provides a solution to the inefficiencies of address management that have beleaguered the County. When tools are available to access accurate information, County employees and department heads are able to make effective decisions.
GIS interacts with County Departments and assists in their communication with each other.