Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
WHITMAN COUNTY –Whitman County's GIS project continues, since its start last fall, to create a layered database for county geography; from roads to streams to private land parcels.
Jeff Marshall, project engineer, a 22-year Whitman County Public Works employee, leads the Geographic Information Systems project.
“A little over 40 percent through now,” he told county commissioners Monday, referring to the first phase.
A total of 12,500 private property parcels have been mapped so far.
“They are just slogging through parcels,” said Marshall, noting consultants FLO Analytics of Seattle, who are working mostly remotely to map county parcels, to total more than 30,000.
Whitman County Public Works GIS specialist Becky Hiles is now digitizing the county's road systems for the project.
Marshall expects the parcel layer and initial road layer to be complete around the beginning of next year.
What do county employees do now for this information?
“They refer to old, physical air photos sitting in a back drawer,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director. “I think they're from the 1960s.”
Washington counties are now mandated by the state to have GIS mapping – soon to be required for a county to receive state gas tax proceeds.
Whitman County Commissioners last year approved $500,000 in the 2019 budget for a GIS base layer – including parcel data from ownership to tax boundaries and election districts.
Once complete, the database is expected to be used by the county treasurer's office, the assessor and Public Works departments from building and planning to road crews.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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