Small Town Takes Big Strides-The City of Coldwater, Michigan
How does a city with a population of less than 15,000 go from paper maps to a digital GIS in less than 3 years? The city of Coldwater, MI and their Board of Public Utilities (BPU) had been maintaining separate mapping systems, each created from the cities` tax maps. In the interest of cost savings and improved information exchange, the two departments agreed to combine their resources. Matt Winger, the city`s engineering technician noted, ``When overlaid, the maps matched on the east end of town, but were up to 300 feet off on the west end.`` Together in the fall of 2001, Chad Burke, Board of Public Utilities, and Matt began laying the groundwork for updating their maps and developing a detailed five year GIS plan for the city.
The Challenge
Their GIS plan called for acquiring digital orthophotography and accurately remapping the entire city. By the spring of 2003, the city had invested over $100,000 in this process; a large investment for a city the size of Coldwater. Chad and Matt`s next step was to start making this investment pay-off for the city. Chad states, ``Our field crews needed more than just accurate maps - they had to be interactive and allow them to see the data behind the maps.`` Matt and Chad estimated that it would take the remaining two and half years of their five year plan to build and customize a web GIS that would meet their needs. They had decided to do this in-house due to the high cost of out-sourcing and programming.
Taking a Quantum Leap
Even though they were on course with their original timeline, the team called upon trusted advisor, Scott Hameister of mPower Technologies. Scott introduced them to a GIS web based solution called mPower Integrator TM.
They tried mPower Integrator with their first undertaking, which was providing the BPU field staff full access to their new maps and data. Using the software`s pick and click wizards, they created a new web site. Each user was easily given a user name, a password, and access rights to the new site. Next they started building the detailed and customized tools that each field crew member needed. Queries, reports, and forms were all created without any programming. The end result was a completely customized interface for each user. After logging on to the new site, each user saw the data, queries, and reports created specifically for them. The ``behind the scenes`` administration, security, and data access tasks were also completed using the software`s intuitive interfaces.
The results were exactly what they had hoped for, but the time required to accomplish all of this was their biggest surprise. ``We were a bit shocked at how fast we were able to build the applications using the solution from mPower Technologies,`` stated Matt. The excitement following this initial success spread quickly, and soon other city departments were eager to get involved.
Bragging Rights
The City of Coldwater now has a state-of-the-art GIS system that will be used for many years to come. Chad says, ``It feels pretty good when people come in and tell us we have one of the best information facilities in the area. Usually they say, `we wish so-and-so had this; it would be so much more helpful.``` Some of the other departments that are now taking advantage of this system on a daily basis include:
- The Fire department: They use mPower Integrator for pre-planning for fires, utilizing floor plans, digital photos of the location, looking for potential problem areas such as entry points, air handlers (on roof), nearest hydrants, and the size of water mains. They plan on installing laptops in their fire engines so they can bring up all of this information on the way to a fire.
- The Police Department: They use mPower Integrator to plan blockades for school emergencies, reporting on traffic accidents, and traffic counts. They also use it for public safety and emergency response.
- The Planning Department: They use mPower Integrator to automatically print mailing labels based on 300 ft. perimeter buffers for zoning variance meetings.
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