The data displayed on Jefferson County’s geographic information system will soon be migrated from outdated physical servers to modern, software-based servers.
GIS data includes information about the county’s parcel lines, roads and taxing districts. The public can access certain GIS data on the county’s website, jeffcomo.org, while other data can be accessed on computers at the Assessor’s Office, 729 Maple St., in Hillsboro.
County Assessor Bob Boyer said the migration was needed to stay up-to-date with the county’s GIS platform provider, Esri.
Without major updates, the county would not be able to improve the current maps available to view in the system, he said.
“The basis of the project is to make sure our infrastructure gets updated to the new Esri system and then we continue to have the service online that people have expected,” he said. “Hopefully, with this new upgrade going forward, we can create some new portals, some new things for people to look at and help them for everyday life.”
In September, the Jefferson County Council agreed to pay ProWest & Associates in Walker, Minn., $16,000 to complete the data migration to the new servers. Councilman Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) was absent from the meeting.
Sandy Kost, the county’s GIS coordinator, said the data migration should be completed by the end of January. While a few county employees who edit the GIS will have some downtime during the migration, Kost said the public should see a seamless transition with little to no interruption.
“If we would not have done an upgrade, we would basically be stagnant and wouldn’t be able to upgrade or maintain any of the GIS,” Kost said. “That’s the most important aspect of it, to continue maintaining and implementing the GIS with the new software. This will provide additional data in a more user-friendly format and provide it more efficiently.”
The migration works hand in hand with the council’s approval of a GIS quality control project last May, Boyer said.
The council hired Surveying and Mapping LLC in St. Louis for the project, which, once completed, will re-map about 33,000 parcels in the southern portion of the county. In 2019, Surveying and Mapping re-mapped about 77,000 parcels, focusing on the major growth areas of the county.
“By the time the project is done, the entire county GIS parcel layer will be quality control checked,” Boyer said. “That helps in a number of ways. The infrastructure part with the servers and the Esri migration is kind of like the engine of a car. What this (the quality control project) will do is help people drive the car, with the parcel layer, the imagery that we purchase every two years, and now the Esri upgrades and server upgrades. People will be able to use it in a timely fashion; they’ll be able to manipulate the data however they need for their specific industry.”
Boyer said the upgrade also will allow for more collaboration and data sharing between county departments. County employees who may edit the data will be able to curate layers of it, or views, of the county’s maps that best suit certain departments.
For example, Boyer said, the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation is interested in how the updated GIS maps may help entice more companies to build or conduct business in the county.
“We’ve talked to (the EDC) about when they have a business that comes in and needs a certain building or lot size or zoning,” Boyer said. “All of that data can be processed through GIS quickly. Presentations and maps can be produced based on that information, which can help sell those things to a business or company that wants to come to Jefferson County.”
Boyer said GIS is a powerful tool for the county. After the migration is complete, the tool will still be accessible on the county’s website.
Boyer said his office welcomes feedback on the upgrades and encourages users to email gisassessor@jeffcomo.org.
“Going forward, when the county is growing and the county executive, County Council and Economic Development Corporation need to make decisions, we have a powerful tool to help them,” Boyer said.