[APRIL 7, 2006]
An informational meeting on the Logan County
Geographic Information System is planned for 7 p.m. Monday in the
downstairs jury room at the courthouse. Lincoln City Council members
will attend, and the meeting is open to the public.
A pilot demonstration of parcel mapping will be shown by Bruce
Harris & Associates of Batavia.
The new mapping process is driven
by a state mandate titled Bulletin 810. It is part of a process to
assess farmland that every Illinois county must implement.
The local GIS committee and the project supervisor, county
engineer Bret Aukamp, have been meeting for many months.
A precise map of Logan County was created using computer-aided
aerial, digital photographs that were taken in 2004. Parcel mapping
is part of the base layer to go over that map. "This would be the
line that goes around every single parcel in the county," Aukamp
said. "It helps the assessor's office. This way everybody is taxed
for exactly what they own, nothing more, nothing less."
Another layer that will be built into the GIS system with the
parcel mapping will be the various soil layers that exist in the
county. The information for that has already been updated and
compiled.
The parcel mapping will take between 12 and 24 months to
complete, Aukamp said.
The GIS committee will continue to seek information about what
other layers to add to the system in the future. They will look at
establishing the structure of the operation and future funding.
Layers in the GIS can be turned on and off according to viewers'
needs. Beyond the base layer there is a multitude of information
that can be added to the system. Other government entities will add
information into it.
This is only the beginning, county coordinator Dewey Colter said.
More attributes can be added, whether physical features or data.
Some possibilities would be to incorporate E-911, health department,
highway department, municipal boundaries and fire protection
districts, he said.
The following GIS sites provide examples of what can be done in
Logan County:
