Putting Crittenden County on the map

Putting Crittenden County on the map

New software could improve operations at county assessor’s office

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County Assessor’s Office may be getting new mapping software which will allow them access to more data to do their job better and more efficiently.

County officials were given a demonstration of Edge, a geographic information software program by EFS GeoTechnologies, which provides more tools to analyze topographic and geographic information and display it in a more userfriendly manner than the system the Assessor’s office is currently using.

Assessor Kim Hollowell told the Quorum Court that Edge has more features and is better at displaying and integrating information.

“There are a lot of wonderful things that are coming to the forefront that we will be able to use that will make it a whole lot better for our office and for our community,” Hollowell said. “And it’s not just the assessor’s office that this is beneficial to but it’s also valuable to the clerk’s office and the Judge’s office.” James Hartsworth, vice president of EFS GeoTechnologies, a company based in Monticello, Arkansas, said the Edge software program is designed to work with other mapping software to capture, store, analyze, manage, and display a wide range of topographic information and integrate it with the county’s other software all in one program.

“It’s log-in based,” Hartsworth said. “So everyone can see this data. That’s the beauty of the system.

You’ve got mapping going on in the assessor’s office.

You’ve got 911 mapping.

What we do is take all of that data and put it in one central location where you can really extract the value of that information.”

Using Edge, Hartsworth said the County Clerk’s Office can have an accurate address map; the County Judge’s office can access up-to-date parcel maps; and the Road Department can use the software to measure the length of a road to estimate how much it will cost to overlay it.

The software also has aerial maps showing flood zones, fire districts, school district boundaries, city limits, zoning maps, and political district lines — all searchable and able to be overlaid with multiple data points.

Assessors can even zoom into specific land parcels or addresses and look at different data like where the flood zones are.

“They’re not just nice maps,” Hartsworth said.

“They have information and databases behind them that we can extract data from. We can look through the years and see how a subdivision has changed.

We also have very accurate addressing information.

There are actual points on rooftops that shows what address it is.”

Hartsworth said Edge’s features are also helpful with economic development matters. He had a public official come up to him recently who told him they had a company looking to build a wind farm.

But without mapping data, all the official could do was call to see who had land for sale.

“He said they needed it within so many feet of a main transmission line and parcels that are open and so many acres and above,” Hartsworth said. “He said to me, ‘I didn’t know what to do. I just got on the phone and started calling farmers to see if they could help me out. But with a system like this in place it could have answered that question in a few minutes.” Justice Vickie Robertson asked whether Edge is compatible with the software that the assessor’s office is currently using.

“So the data won’t have to be re-entered?” Robertson asked.

Hartsworth said the software that the E 911 Center and Assessor’s office use are compatible with Edge.

“If it’s what the other county clerks have, no,” Hartsworth said. “Those will not have to be re-entered or re-mapped. We’ll just take the data out of those systems and import them into ours. There is a 99.9 percent chance that whatever system they are using we will be able to convert the data and bring it in.”

The assessor’s office currently uses software from Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a California-based company which provides geographic information software applications. Esri has one million users in 200 countries.

Hollowell said Edge has more features and is easier to use than Esri.

“Esri is a world renowned company that is a base for a lot of companies,” Hollowell said. “We have utilized them at a lower cost. But they don’t provide the bells and whistles of being able to do this extent of the work that we need to get done.”

Hollowell added that unlike Edge, Esri is not compatible with the Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) program that they use to complete a valuation. CAMA allows appraisers access to data about building inventory, sketching tools, and actual and simulated comparisons.

“For example, if I went to Edge’s map and I wanted my CAMA system to give me information, I could push a button and it will take me straight to my CAMA system and see all of the information instead of just a brief on it,” Hollowell said. “If I am on my CAMA system and I am talking to somebody on the phone, they can push a button to the map and pinpoint where it is. That’s very important to what we do on a daily basis.”

Judge Woody Wheeless agreed that Esri is difficult to use.

“I consider myself pretty computer literate,” Wheeless said. “Esri is very hard to work with in my opinion. I can’t figure it out.

This (Edge) is supposed to be a lot more user friendly, but we’re still using that Esri baseline.”

Robertson asked if Edge would be a one stop shopping for what the county needs.

“So we would not have to use Esri at all?” Robertson asked.

“That’s right,” Hartsworth said.

Hollowell said the maps would still come from one company and the software from another, but the big difference is that they will be able to communicate with the Edge software and for about the same cost.

“I’m going to pay them the same money as Esri as what I would pay Edge and not get nearly the product I get with them,” Hollowell said.

Hartsworth said they have contracts with 20 counties in Arkansas who use Edge, two counties in Mississippi, and three parishes in Louisiana.

“We’ve taken all of that and made it easier for counties to learn so they don’t have to be professional mappers,” Hartsworth said.

“There are a ton of applications. It ends up paying for itself several times over with the efficiencies that are realized and the things you can do that you couldn’t do in the past.”

By Mark Randall