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City of Helena - Lewis and Clark County GIS

GIS implementation is a 5 year project. The first stages are in progress and include obtaining survey control, digital orthophotos and planimetrics, to support parcel mapping.

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Business Problem

The City of Helena - Lewis & Clark County GIS mission is to improve access to and use of geographic information for city and county staff, and the public. The GIS must meet the needs of over.
The primary applications that the city and county staff require are
Road maps
On-line address map
On-line access to parcel maps and ownership information
Be able to produce area maps
Have the ability to create maps for a variety of applications such as infrastructure maintenance and planning, parks planning and management, permitting, and water quality protection.

Technology Implemented

The city and county GIS office uses ArcInfo, and ArcGIS 8.1 technology to perform data conversions and maintenance for the GIS. Department users use ArcView and ArcExplorer to access data, create maps, and maintain some data sets. An ArcView application was developed for a public access workstation to facilitate access to assessor maps and parcel data. The GIS office is also developing ArcIMS applications to facilitate access for the city-county departments, and will soon be opening ArcIMS up to the public.

The GIS departments web site provides maps, data sets, and information about GIS projects.

Development Team

Rj Zimmer, GIS Manager, John Hinshaw, GIS Programmer/Analyst

Development Team Biography

Rj Zimmer has over 12 years of GIS experience in local government and as a private GIS consultant. He earned a B.Sc. in engineering-physics from Oregon State University and is a registered professional land surveyor, with more than 20 years experience in land surveying. He writes a GIS column "In Line with GIS" for Professional Surveyor Magazine.

John Hinshaw has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Montana, where he gained experience in GIS and image processing at the Spatial Analysis Lab. John spent six years with the Montana Natural Heritage Program as a computer specialist/NT administrator