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News 2006This is where we'll announce what's happening in Belmont County GIS. The most recent information is listed first. See news from prior years for a historic review of the status of GIS in Belmont County.
December 2006 Word on the digital orthophotography is that all of the one foot pixel imagery has been rectified, with final editing about 20% complete. Work is progressing smoothly. A significant delivery is expected by the end of the month, with regular deliveries after that. Address ranges (to-from/left-right) have now been assigned to road centerlines for township roads in Colerain, Pease, Pultney, Mead and York Townships. November 2006 GIS Day was November 15 this year, and the Belmont County Commissioners once again recognized the county's GIS program with a resolution urging all citizens to learn more about GIS. The afternoon saw a demonstration of new parcel mapping on the web, beginning at 1:00 pm at the GIS Office in Lloydsville. The public was invited. Check out gisday.com's success stories for a picture of the presentation and the resolution. A pilot tax map conversion project is being completed for over 6,700 parcels between St. Clairsville and Brookside. This is the beginning of the creation of the third major component in the county’s GIS. Three key pieces of a complete GIS are aerial orthophotography, addressing and parcel mapping. So far scans of manually drafted tax maps have been made each summer and posted on the GIS web site by Engineer’s staff. This parcel mapping project involves converting paper tax maps to digital GIS format mapping. The project area is geographic township T-6 R-3, a 36 square mile area comprising parts of Colerain, Pease, Pultney and Richland Townships, roughly bisected by six miles of US 40 east and west and laying three miles north and south of the National Road. It covers much of the stormwater urban area, county water and sewer corridors, rural and subdivision areas, the Ohio Valley Mall and parcel mapping from times before the county was founded to the present. This area was selected for its variety of mapping as well as a target number of parcels. The project was completed by Draft-Co, Inc. of Martins Ferry, the same firm which hosts our parcel data, web services and email. Jason Davenport, President, updated the MapGuide web site with the new parcel layer. He added a parcel search feature, which allows the user to search for parcels by name or by parcel number. A results list is returned showing possible matches found. If the parcel is located within the T-6 R-3 project area, a Zoom button can be clicked to take the user to that parcel in the map; otherwise a “Zoom not available” message is shown. The auditor parcel number and engineer parcel number are shown as tool tips when the mouse hovers over a parcel. The parcel layer becomes available when the map is at a scale of 1:15,000 or greater. A hyperlink for each record in the result search list takes the user to a separate window showing the engineer’s parcel data for that parcel. More mapping conversion is anticipated for future years. How soon it is all done is a function of funding. Hopefully once people start using the parcel mapping and grow accustomed to the benefits of it, more funding will be forthcoming. With over 62,000 parcels in the county, it would take another nine
 years
if one project like this one were funded each year!
October 2006 The pilot aerials have been received for the 200 scale, 1 foot pixel tiles as shown. Compare with the half-foot pixel delivery, August news, below.
The Barnesville Calibration Baseline (CBL) was remeasured by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) October 10. A difference in distances from published values in the 2 mm range required a repeat, which was performed October 13. New values will be published in the future by NGS. The Base Flood Elevations (BFEs) and FIRM Panel numbers have been added to the MapGuide site under the DFIRM group. September 2006
The
Ohio Valley Athletic Conference (OVAC) map has been enlarged and is on display
in WesBanco Arena (formerly the Wheeling Civic Center). The original map, made
late last year, was a part of the Map Gallery at this year’s annual Ohio GIS
Conference September 20-22 in Columbus. Tom Rataiczak, OVAC Executive
Secretary, granted permission to use the map at the Conference. The map
won a "Most Unique" ribbon! On August 21 the county received a CD from the US Census Bureau which included road centerline files based on our 2001 countywide base mapping. On August 27 the Belmont County Board of Elections held an Open House at their new facility in St. Clairsville. A representative from the Secretary of State’s Office commented on the detailed mapping produced by the GIS department, and expressed a desire that all counties in Ohio had similar mapping. December 22 is the deadline for local governments to notify OGRIP of their intentions to “buy up” to more detailed orthophotography or mapping as the Ohio Statewide Imagery Program (OSIP) plans for next year’s flights in southern Ohio. A meeting was held September 12 at Buckeye Hills-Hocking Valley Regional Development District in Marietta explaining the program. A representative from Woolpert, the company contracted by Ohio, commented this would be an opportunity for communities even on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River to participate in this mapping. Belmont County GIS data on the web is now running from servers hosted by Draft-Co of Martins Ferry, and can be accessed at www.belmontcountygis.com. August 2006 The first aerial images have been received and include half-foot pixel orthophotos in the Ohio Valley Mall area as shown.
July 2006 Requests for the new 2006 aerial photography are received from time to time. Keep watching this page for updates as deliverables are made. An excellent presentation was made at OGRIP's Forum July 31. A representative from the Ohio Historical Society spoke on the Ohio Public Land Survey. The historical perspective was given from Egypt, Greece, Rome, England, the New World, and the Northwest Territory. Many early leaders in the formation of the United States were surveyors. Some interesting words are "virgates" and "hides" - enough land for one person and one family, respectively. The word "acre" means "open field" and was what one man could till with one ox in one day. It measures one chain by one furlong (10 chains). The word "surveyor" comes from the French "sur" meaning "over" and "voir" meaning "to see." Edmund Gunter was a natural at ratios and proportions and coined the terms "cosine" and "cotangent." Many other fascinating insights were covered. June 2006
May 2006 The aerial mapping project is in the AGPS/IMU and aerotriangulation phase. The bill has been paid for the aerial photography acquisition. The Land Records Modernization Conference (originally Tax Map Conference) was held May 23-24 in Columbus for the sixth consecutive year. I sat on a panel discussing addressing issues along with representatives from Crawford and Holmes Counties. Other topics included history of land records, annexation, railroad tracts, minimum standards, conveyance standards and open records law. April 2006 On March 26 URISA presented an all-day workshop on addressing. The event was held prior to the GIS-T Conference in Columbus March 27-29. GIS-T focuses on GIS in transportation, and the conference was attended by representatives from DOT's from all over the United States and Canada. Acquisition of aerial photography was completed April 10. Kucera International is working on initial data processing and review of the imagery. Ground targets have been removed as of April 20. March 2006 Ground control targets were placed by Hamilton and Associates by February 27 for 40 points throughout the county. Aerial photography was captured countywide March 7 by Kucera International, Inc. at one foot pixel resolution. A start on the half-foot pixel areas was made. The remainder of these areas will be captured when weather permits. This may be the first countywide project in Ohio using a Leica ADS40 digital camera. In the meantime, GPS observations and calculations are being made. Once the half-foot pixel areas have been flown, the paneled targets will be removed. To view a pdf map of the county showing resolution areas, click here. One foot resolution areas are labeled 200 scale, and half-foot 100 scale. On February 28-March 2, basic computer and GIS training was given to two employees from the county's Emergency Management Agency, enabling them to view imagery and find addresses and roads. February 2006 A contract was signed on February 8 with Kucera International, Inc. for this year's aerial mapping project. Classes on Building the Geodatabase I and Building the Geodatabase II were completed at ESRI's training facility in Gahanna January 30-February 3. PLSO's Annual Conference in Perrysburg February 9-10 included sessions on GPS and State Plane Coordinates, GPS with CORS and VRS, Lucas County GIS, Ohio's Boundaries, and CPD's and Board Enforcement. January 2006
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Copyright © 2001
Belmont County GIS
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