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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 11-04-1998 - 8cORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: November 4, 1998 Action Agenda Item No. 2-0- SUBJECT: 1998 -99 Information Technology Plan Implementation - GIS Enhancements DEPARTMENT: Information Systems ATTACHMENT(S): 10/27/98 GIS Director Memo IT Committee Review Comments PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/NS) BUDGET AMENDMENT: (Y/N) INFORMATION CONTACT: Dick Taylor, ext 2276 Roscoe Reeve, ext 2501 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732 -8181 Chapel Hill 968 -4501 Durham 688 -7331 Mebane 227 -2031 PURPOSE: To consider approval of funding for GIS enhancements to be undertaken through the County's Information Technology Plan. BACKGROUND: The Information Technology Committee has reviewed the staff's request for funding for GIS enhancements and recommends that the Board of Commissioners approve the expenditure of $133,431 for the purposes outlined in this abstract and the attached staff memo. During the 1997 -98 fiscal year, the Board of Commissioners approved the County's multi -year Information Technology (IT) Plan, as recommended by the Board appointed IT Committee. When the Board approved the 1998 -2008 CIP in June 1998, there was a total of $614,040 appropriated in 1998 -99 for the IT Plan's six initiatives. The Board of Commissioners directed that before any of these new funds are expended, the Board and/or the IT Committee are to review and approve the projects to be funded. At the August 18, 1998, the Board approved the expenditure of up to $220,000 from the 1998 -99 IT Plan allocation for Desktop Systems for the purchase of 120 replacement PCs. Staff recommends that the Board next authorize the expenditure of $133,431 for GIS enhancements described in the attached memo from Land Records /GIS Director Roscoe Reeve, which was prepared for the IT Committee for review during their October 27, 1998 meeting. The largest portion of this expenditure would be used to complete the next two phases (fully analytical aerial triangulation and digital orthophotos) of the County's contract with Atlantic Technologies for the multi -year provision of enhanced GIS data and maps. At its meeting on January 20, 1998, the Board approved that contract and its first two phases, which included new aerial photography of the entire County. Staff have been pleased with Atlantic Technologies' delivery of timely, high quality products under the first two phases of the contract. The Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro will also be acquiring GIS data in conjunction with the County's agreement with Atlantic, and their participation in this project will result in a reduction of the County's share of the approximate $650,000 cost of the original agreement with Atlantic. The Board's approval of this request for $133,431, combined with the $220,000 approved in August leaves an uncommitted balance of approximately $261,000 to address the other elements of the 1998 -99 IT Plan. These will be presented to the Board later this fiscal year. Initiative 1998 -99 CIP Disposition Funding Allocations County Network 0 (funding completed in 1997 - 98 CIP) Desktop Systems $284,200 $220,000 authorized for expenditure by BOCC in 8/98 — balance to be addressed later in FY 98 -99 Technical Support and Training $22,309 to be addressed later in FY 98 -99 Upgrade Department Legacy Systems $80,200 to be addressed later in FY 98 -99 Citizen and Board Access $5,000 to be addressed later in FY 98 -99 Document Management, GIS, and Other $222,331 $133,431 requested for Technology expenditure in 11/98 — balance would be addressed later in FY 98 -99 $614,040 RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve the GIS enhancement plans outlined and the expenditure of funds from the 1998 -99 CIP IT Plan project in the amount of $133,431 for this purpose; and authorize the Purchasing Director to execute the necessary documents to carry out equipment acquisitions. LAND RECORDS /GIS MEMORANDUM To: IT Committee From: Roscoe Reeve, GIS Director Date: October 27, 1998 Subject: Request for Approval of GIS Purchases from CIP Request: For the IT Committee to recommend to the Orange County Board of Commissioners approval of GIS purchases for the 1998 -99 fiscal year from the Capital Investments Plan funds. Funding for the following proposed purchases, totaling $133,431, was included in the approved 1998 -99 allocation to the IT Plan capital project during the CIP process: 1. Phases C (FART) and D (Digital Orthophotos) of the contract with Atlantic Technologies of Huntsville, Alabama. In 1997 the Board of Commissioners approved a multi - phase, multi -year contract with Atlantic Technologies to acquire a new digital orthophoto base for the County's cadastral map coverages, and additional digital data that would enhance the GIS capabilities of numerous County /town offices and citizens. In the 1997 -98 budget process you and the commissioners approved the first two phases of that project: (A) ground control and (B) aerial photography. In the 1998 -99 budget process the commissioners approved in the CIP the next two phases subject to your approval. These phases will obtain for the County and the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough (1) the analytical survey work that provides the mathematical base to the digital GIS products; and (2) the digital orthophotos of the entire County. Digital orthophotos are the result of rectified aerial photos formed into a stereo model to display ground features as if the earth were flat. This provides a base for mapping which at urban scales (1" = 100' or 1" = 200') approach engineering accuracy. Chapel Hill and Carrboro plan to purchase the topography and planimetrics for their area according to inter -local agreements with the County. The County's expenditures for these two phases will be around � if for any reason the towns did not participate. Total Contract Price for FAAT & Orthophotos: $106,315 Chapel Hill share: $ 26,842 Carrboro share: % 11,930 County net cost for FAAT & Orthophotos $ 67,543 if the towns participate: The analytical process is the foundation for all products to be obtained this year and in the future. It establishes the horizontal and vertical accuracy for the data obtained in the photo flight, captured by airborne and ground global positioning system (GPS) units. This accuracy is then integrated with the visual values of the aerial photography. 4 The digital orthophotos will be provided at three scales: 1" = 100' for the urban areas of the County; 1" = 200' for the suburban areas; and, 1" = 400' for the rural areas. Because all will be digital projects, they can be enlarged by our software to much larger scales while maintaining their high resolution. We will demonstrate for you at the meeting the difference this makes when compared to our current bases. Orthophotos can be used by numerous offices to observe ground features, especially when other types of data are overlaid on the images. They will be of great value and available to Emergency Management, Sheriff, Planning, Environmental Health, Tax Assessor, in addition to my office. A visual image of the ground is very helpful to citizens seeking information about their or others' land. Because digital orthophotos occupy a huge amount of disk space, they will be typically stored on several large Unix servers (in my office and EMS), but they can be loaded by other offices from CD -ROMs. It is anticipated that the orthophotos of the entire County will occupy 12gb of disk uncompressed. The typical user will download images of the area they are interested in from either a server, a server on the intranet, or a CD -ROM. In the demonstration we will show you what we are able to do today with GIS data; what we will be able to do with the products you approve this year•, and, what will be possible with future phases of the Atlantic contract providing digital topography and planimetrics. 2. The purchase of hardware for extending GIS work in the Land Records /GIS Office. The request is to purchase two NT workstations for staff. One is to replace an existing Unix workstation that was borrowed from the Assessor's office, and the other is to provide a workstation for a mapping staff person who now has no GIS hardware /software capabilities. Each mapper needs a workstation to perform editing functions or to provide GIS maps /data to citizens. We also propose to purchase three digitizers to replace two very old existing digitizers and one for a new NT. The expected cost of the hardware will be about 3. The purchase of GIS software for new and existing workstations in the Land Records /GIS Office. This request is to purchase one full functioning ARC/INFO license for the new NT's (they'll share use of it from the server Roscoe) and two Arcview3 query licenses for the existing Unix server and one NT. We also want to purchase inexpensive software (visual basic and arc objects) to manage the interactive updating of the County's mainframe (Unix server) by the GIS workstations. The expected cost of the software will be about r. 4. The purchase of training services and system development opportunities. This request is to (1) purchase training services to enhance the GIS skills of application development and system administration staff in programming and OS maintenance ($3,000); (2) the fees and travel expenses of attendance at user group meetings, seminars, and training sessions ($1,800); and (3) the opportunity to purchase available GIS data from private or public agencies such as new soil data from the State ($200). The expected total cost of the training and system development will be about $. From: John B. Smith <jbs @cs.unc.edu> To: ocmail.ocmail(RVISSER) Date: 10/28/98 11:14am Subject: Recommendation: funding next stage of GIS upgrade The ITC recommends funding for the next stage of the planned upgrade of GIS data and systems, as outlined in the October 27, 1998, memorandum prepared by GIS Director, Roscoe Reeve. At its regularly scheduled meeting on that same day the ITC reviewed current and planned upgrades of both County GIS data and computer systems. The Committee believes GIS represents an extremely important resource, not just for Land Records, but for other County departments and, potentially, the citizens of Orange County. The Committee endorses the proposed allocation of approximately $135,000 -- to cover new data, computers, software, and training -- with the understanding that the final costs to the county are expected to be lower (approximately $110,000) when fair share agreements with Chapel Hill and Carrboro are completed and those towns reimburse the County for specialized data needed to meet their requirements. CC: ocmail.ocmail( DTAYLOR) ,ocmail.SMTP- DOS("mwbrown @mi...