WGM Group Can Help Local Governments Secure Funding to Alleviate Workloads & Enhance Services.
By WGM Group's GIS Analyst Mindy Cochran
Eons ago, in my previous role as the Flathead County GIS Manager, we used to joke about the lack of familiarity with GIS technologies. We would jumble the acronym playfully and say to each other “GSI…what does that stand for?” But those were days of the past.
Today, government officials are [more often than not] familiar with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and at least some of the uses for the technology. In Montana, nearly everyone has utilized the state’s cadastral website to look up land ownership at one time or another.
However, for many counties, the use of GIS stops there, but not because they don’t have a need for more. Most often, local governments reach a roadblock in using GIS further simply because they are too busy dealing with immediate priorities to get ahead of their needs.
Fortunately, thanks to the Montana Land Information Act (MLIA), there are grant funds available for Montana local governments with GIS needs. When the MLIA came to fruition over a decade ago, new legislation raised the fees to record a document with the county clerk by $1/page. The money raised from that fee increase has been allocated into an account available for funding GIS projects.
MLIA funding is an incredible opportunity because there are many ways for local governments to leverage GIS technology. During my tenure as the Flathead County GIS Manager, I built 17 web maps to alleviate workloads in departments across the county. The cadastral application provides links to survey documents specific to any given parcel, so that foot traffic in the plat room was reduced to a tenth of what it was in pre-GIS days.
Because the cadastral app contained data from many different agencies, it was often referred to as a “mega map.” However, other web maps I built were focused apps containing data specific to only one agency. The benefit of these smaller scale maps is that the agency’s data and tools can be in the forefront for the end user. The focused apps with the biggest return on alleviating workloads were:
Septic Permit Lookup
Zoning Information Lookup
Find My Flood Plain (and view FIRM maps)
Public and Paratransit Bus Stops and Routes
In addition to alleviating workloads, I was also able to enhance services across the county with the use of GIS. I found that many departments needed to collect data in the field (such as where they had sprayed for mosquitos and/or weeds, or for inventory tracking of culverts, road signs, road pavement striping, or groundwater monitoring). So, I developed mobile data collection applications for those departments, allowing field workers without GIS training to collect valuable data via an iPad or tablet.
For the county treasurer, we enhanced services by utilizing spatial analysis to perform tax audits to ensure the correct parcels were paying taxes to the correct districts.
Emergency 911 services were improved by using dispatcher’s call logs to identify areas of high crime rates and traffic accidents.
From data creation and spatial analysis to web applications and field mapping solutions, there are a myriad of GIS solutions for Montana local government and grant funds available to help develop those solutions.
If you are in local government interested and in alleviating workloads and/or enhancing services, WGM has experience helping clients acquire grant funding. Call 406-756-4848 or send me an email at: mcochran@wgmgroup.com to start a conversation about how we can help your local government get ahead of the GIS curve.