By Brian David
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
Beaver County soon will step into the electronic age by combining all its maps into one database.
With one click, tax assessors will be able to pull up maps with property lines, election officials maps with voting precincts and emergency dispatchers maps with addresses and access points, all from the same computer files.
The county commissioners are expected to vote today on a mapping proposal from Michael Baker Corp., which will, if the project is approved, put together the system with maps and aerial photos.
The work is the culmination of an effort going back about a year, when county Emergency Services Director Wes Hill was looking into upgrading the dispatch systems electronic maps, to make them more accurate and to blend with coming global positioning system technology. With new maps and GPS in place, a person calling 911 from a cell phone will be instantly pinpointed on a computerized map, greatly aiding emergency response.
At the same time, vounty Assessor Mike Kohlmann was looking into scanning and converting the county’s aging paper property maps. Not only would the new maps be more accurate and immune from wear and tear, but assessors also would be able to log updates via computer from the field.
Once those two offices decided to cooperate, other offices quickly came on board, and a committee started exploring the possibilities.
Mr. Hill told the commissioners Oct. 11 that if EMS led the effort, the county could get as much as $1.2 million in grant money funded by state telephone fees.
“It’s major money, but it’s important,” he said.
That will get the county electronic maps at a 1:200 scale -- one inch on the map equals 200 inches in real life -- and “eight or nine layers primary to us,” Mr. Hill said. One layer, for instance, could include roads and driveways, another layer property lines, a third the footprints of buildings, a fourth waterways, a fifth the locations of fire hydrants.
With such a system a police officer could call up a map on a laptop while his partner is driving to the scene of a call. By the time they arrive, they could know exactly what building the caller is in, where in the building he is and how to get to the building and get in.
Other offices don’t need maps as precise as 1:200, but can piggyback on the EMS maps anyway. The planning commission might want map layers showing zoning districts, topography, wetlands and utility lines; the elections office would be likely to want wards and precincts. The assessment office would want ownership history along with property lines and building footprints.
The county might need to fund those layers, with grant money covering only what EMS does, but it would be cheaper to add on to existing base maps than to build separate maps for each department.
“We were ready to go lay money out to redo our tax maps,” county Commissioner Dan Donatella said at the Oct. 11 meeting.