County & Municipal Cooperation
Cost Sharing of Data & GIS
Iowa County, City of Dodgeville,
Village of Avoca, Village of Highland
Statistics
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County Population 2000 Census - 22,780
2 Cities and 13 Villages and 14 Towns
Largest City - Dodgeville - Population 4,220
21 Supervisory Districts
Economic Base - Farming/Agricultural, Tourism - House
on the Rock, Pendarvis House, Rustic Scenery, Governor
Dodge State Park, Blackhawk Lake
Businesses - Land’s End, Walnut Hollow, Silicon Sensors,
Nelson Muffler
History
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Southwest Consortium was created to obtain grant funds
for 7 counties to begin their Land Records Program.
Orthophotography and equipment were purchased from the
Consortium Grant. Thus initiating the County’s whole cost
sharing philosophy!
Iowa County Land Records Program began in 1995.
Iowa County Land Records Committee and County Board
determined the need for Land Records and developed a
budget for Land Records which included staff, equipment,
& supplies.
The Iowa County Land Records Modernization Plan was
developed which showed dedication to Land Records,
WLIA, and a development of a GIS System.
History Cont.
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A Pilot area including 18 sections in the Southwest region
of the County was contracted out in 1996.
1997 - Iowa County hired it’s first full time employee to
develop and maintain the Iowa County Land Records GIS Technician
With the use of interns and LTE’s Iowa County completed
rural parcel mapping within 3 years and completed
mapping of Cities and Villages with a year after that.
Wha-La!
We had Data and something to Show the local Municipalities
Goals
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Keep the Momentum Going!
Obtain recent orthophotography
Develop GIS System
 Get it to the County Departments
 Get it to the local Muncipalities
 Eventually, get it to the Public
Become Data Junkies, get more data, the more the better!
Problems
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Budget Contraints
Establishing Need for Orthophotography update and GIS
System
How to get more data
Orthophotography Plan
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Utilize 2002 Grant funds to obtain 2002
Orthophotography.
Fly both High Flight and Low flight orthophotography
Develop both high and low at lower resolution than the
original 1995 flight - 18 inch pixels for high flight and 6’
pixels for low flight
Request local municipalities contribute by targeting their
municipality in preparation of low flight
Keep low flight negative in the ‘box’ until each
municipality is wants to pay for having them orthorectified.
Orthophotography Plan Cont.
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Request municipalities to share low flight orthophotos with
the County in return for the County covering:
Targeting costs – High flight & some low flight $ 5,775
Aerial photography – High & Low flight
$15,195
Digital ortho-rectification - High flight
$36,540
Total costs for Iowa County
$57,510
Cost to Municipalities to digital ortho-rectify low flights:
 Villages - $1,800 - $3,700 each, dependant on number
of tiles & size - 13 Villages total
 Cities - $5,500 - $6,000 each, dependant on number of
tiles & size - 2 Cities Total
Implementation of
Orthophotography Plan
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Held a “Foto-Fly 2002” Open house and invited
Municipalities to attend.
Explained the Cost sharing and benefits to each
municipality
Received help from Ayres in demonstration and providing
cost quotes for each municipality
Project Outcome
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County received updated orthophotography with higher resolution at
40% cost savings compared to the original 1995 flight. Mostly due to
changes in technology and maintaining original DTM.
County obtained updated low flight orthophotography from 2 Villages
and 1 City.
 Village of Avoca - purchased and contributed their low flight
orthophotography. Purchase price - $2,630
 Village of Highland - purchased and contributed their low flight
orthophotography. Purchase price - $2,100
 City of Dodgeville - purchased and contributed their low flight
orthophotography and also contracted Ayres to develop DTM’s
with 2 foot contours. Purchase price - $6,000 orthophotgraphy &
an additional $14,000 for new DTM with 2 foot contours.
Project Outcome Cont.
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Standing offer for all other local municipalities to purchase low flights
and share with County.
Periodical contacts from Ayres and the County to help local
municipalities understand and realize the potential of the
orthophotography and cost savings and benefits.
Improvement on accuracy of the Municipality parcel mapping due to
higher resolution orthophotography.
GIS Website Plan
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Implement Web-based GIS
 Service over web to eliminate need for multiple
software licenses using ArcIMS
 Add County data: parcel data, orthophotgraphy,
topographic raster images, soils, road centerlines, etc.
 Allow County departments to access the information
immediately with the use of user name and password.
 Allow local municipalities to access website with use of
user name and password.
 Eventually establish a public access site which
withholds personally identifiable information without
the use of a user name and password.
GIS Website Plan Cont.
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Expand Web-based GIS
 Place municipality purchased low flights on website on
behalf of participating Municipalities.
 Offer Municipalities to add their data to our website for
simply the cost of installing in onto our existing
ArcIMS website at a cost of $75-$100 per layer.
 Offer Municipalities the option of ‘locking off’ their
data from the public or others so that only they have
access to their data from our site.
 Cover the cost of installing regional data onto the site:
data that covers the entire county such as wetlands,
MFL, topography, mining, etc.
Implementstion of GIS Website
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Contracted with Ruekert-Mielke to design and implement
Iowa County GIS Website using ArcIMS
Attended every Muncipality’s Board Meeting and
demonstrated the functionality and uses for the GIS
website and how it would benefit them.
Gave each Municipality a user name and password for
access. Allowed access free of charge.
Offered each Municipality to add data at any time.
GIS Website Outcome
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Test ran the site internally and with Municipalities for
about a year.
Provided Training to each Municipality and Department on
how to use the system
Initiated ‘Public Access’ site on December 31, 2003 Municipalities aided in notifying the public of the website
by adding the GIS brochure to the tax bills being sent out.
Obtained data from Village of Highland: water, sewer,
zoning and land use. Installed onto website. By request of
Village of Highland, locked off these layers from the
public access site.
County updates parcel mapping at least once a year.
GIS Website Outcome Cont.
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Continuous input is being received from municipalities in
order to improve the system or correct errors in the data
supplied on the website such as unknown parcel owners,
parcel addresses, road names, etc.
Increasing number of hits on the website every day. Calls
from public concerning errors in the data.
Increasing number of people inquiring about how to use
the site.
Decrease time spent on special order maps since we can
refer customers to the website which allows them to print
their own maps.
Summary of Benefits
For both projects, the County benefited by substantial cost
savings.
 We were able to obtain low flight orthophotos without
purchasing them ourselves
 We were able to save money on targeting for the
orthophotography since local municipalities targeted in
there region.
 We will eventually save money as these municipalities add
their data to our website. Data which we will not have to
develop.
 We formed an alliance for future projects
Summary of Benefits Cont.
For both projects, the Municipalities benefited by substantial cost
savings.
 They were able to obtain low flight orthophotos without
incurring the high costs of the airplane flight and negatives.
 We were able to save money on targeting for the
orthophotography since the County targeted in nearby regions.
 They have access to all the County’s data as well as the option
to add their data for very little cost.
 They were able to access the County’s GIS without incurring
software licenses.
 They formed an alliance for future projects and realize the
County’s efforts to help provide them with useful information
with little cost to them.
Wish List for the Future
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Create a complete County-wide GIS website with all
Municipalities adding their data.
Continue with Cost sharing for future orthophotography
project - next one being in 2005.
Continue to use these cost sharing ideas on future projects
so that users of land and spatial information data will be
able to get more bang for the buck.
Thank you!
Cristina Pearson, GIS Coordinator
Iowa County
Laura Lisowki, Clerk/Treasurer
Village of Avoca
Theresa Michek, Clerk/Treasure
Village of Highland
Questions
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