User Conference 2007 - Special Achievement in GIS

In the early 1990s, Black Hawk County was fortunate to have a group of forward-thinking decision makers. County Assessor Vicki Atkins, Auditor Grant Veeder, Engineer Harold Jensen and the Board of Supervisors saw what a valuable tool an intelligent digital mapping application would be for the county.

Over the years the project has grown from parcel maintenance to the use of GIS in several county departments and in the cities of the county. From analysis to the development of new layers, GIS is used daily in the Assessor, Auditor, Conservation, Consolidated Communications, Engineer, Health Department, Sheriff, and Zoning departments. A mapping website has been developed to facilitate the dissemination of real estate information to the public, and has been expanded to include a countywide zoning layer and voting information. The website is used extensively by private citizens and businesses. The county continues to use GIS to provide services efficiently and cost effectively.

Business Problem Solved

Black Hawk County wanted to develop a mapping project that would maintain accurate cadastral data as well as provide online access to the data to county departments and the cities of the county. Black Hawk County wanted an intelligent basemap that could be expanded upon to help employees do their jobs efficiently and assist policy makers in making informed decisions. The Sidwell Company of St. Charles, Illinois was hired to convert the county paper maps into an intelligent parcel map. The county continues to use the map maintenance tool software developed by Sidwell. The county has since converted its GIS data to ArcSDE with SQL Server using Arc Editor and Parcel Builder to maintain the data. The county also wanted to provide the real estate information on the web for public use. ArcIMS is the foundation for our county mapping website. Beyond the basic cadastral layers, dozens of additional layers have been created to facilitate the different departments’ daily tasks.

Technology Implemented

The county currently uses ArcGIS 9.1 products for its project. Currently we are using ArcInfo and ArcEditor with Parcel Builder (software developed by the Sidwell Company) to maintain our cadastral layer. The county has several seats of ArcMap that are used for analysis and maintenance. The county website has been developed using ArcIMS. Black Hawk County is planning to upgrade to version 9.2 of these ESRI products.

Development Team Biography

It would require more space than provided to list all of the persons involved in GIS at Black Hawk County. GIS has had valuable friends in the offices that deal directly with real estate. Assessor Vicki Atkins, Auditor Grant Veeder, Engineer Dick King and the Board are very supportive of GIS in our county. Each of their staffs has contributed greatly to this project. The Information Technology Department has worked very closely with Sidwell and ESRI in the technical support of hardware and software. Kim Veeder, IT Director, Janet Beier, Auditor’s Office Map Technician, Tami McFarland, Deputy Assessor and Barb Berquam, former GIS Coordinator worked together to develop the GeoDatabase model. As project manager, Kim Veeder worked directly with Sidwell on the implementation and training required for the upgrade to ArcSDE and Parcel Builder. The success of GIS in our county is directly related to the distribution of responsibilities and the cooperation between these departments.