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Assessor turns overs server to officials
CHARLESTON -- The ball, so to speak, is now in the county clerk's court.
Mississippi County Assessor W.R. "Bill" Thompson turned over the server for the county's geographic information system to county commissioners and the county clerk during the regular Mississippi County Commission meeting Tuesday.
"You may extract any and all files for public use," Thompson invited.
"We'll try to burn a CD off it," said County Clerk Junior DeLay.
Commissioners asked if the assessor will still be able to perform duties related to parcel splits.
"Not without that he can't," DeLay answered, although he added that Thompson "had it unplugged anyway" prior to handing it over. He said the requested updated files will be retrieved and the GIS server returned to the assessor.
Commissioner Martin Lucas said it appears that Sarah Anderson, a mapper for Cape Girardeau County under contract with the Mississippi County Assessor's Office to update the county's maps, had been using the GIS to print up maps and then pencil in parcel splits manually.
DeLay said he will contact the county's GIS vendor regarding user licenses for the East Prairie and Charleston E-911 dispatching centers. If the E-911 call centers have access to the GIS program, they could at least use the program's search function for finding streets. "That way you don't have to visually scan a wall map," he said.
E-911 dispatchers won't need to manipulate any data, but only need to view data so training should not be an issue, according to DeLay. He said the cost for each user license is about $1,500.
Presiding Commissioner Blumenberg asked about Thompson's claim of a number errors in the GIS database.
Lucas said it is true there are errors, but they can't be blamed on the GIS vendor. "They scanned what they had available," he said.
One glaring problem, Lucas said, is that a "grievous error" was made during the rural addressing process as many streets in rural areas were renamed and now do not match the recorded, platted street names. They should have incorporated the old, platted name, he said.
Lucas said it is not a viable option to replat everything to match the new street names even though many of them are likely forgotten.
A more viable alternative would be contacting the U.S. Postal Service to change street names to match those shown on the plats, Lucas said. Going over all the property record cards would be "a time consuming process," he said.
The GIS vendor can not be held responsible for the errors, however: "They only did with what they had," Lucas said, using "a copy of a copy of a copy" as that was all that was available following the fire at the previous courthouse.
Blumenberg also asked about Thompson's claim that the database has become uncoupled.
DeLay recalled that the GIS vendor's technicians demonstrated on a previous visit that the database was not uncoupled as claimed at that time.
Additionally, Anderson has been trained on how to fix an uncoupled database, DeLay said.
Commissioner Homer Oliver said the it is no great consequence as far as assessing because when a piece of property is sold, it must be surveyed anyway. "It really doesn't matter," Lucas agreed.
As Thompson's reluctance to turn over a "work in progress," Lucas noted that "any type of mapping program is always ongoing."
In other business during Tuesday's meeting:
* Sam Smith of Smith and Company Engineering in Poplar Bluff presented photographs and figures of the completed new bridge on County Road 518 at Four Mile Pond.
The total cost for the bridge, which is 110 feet long and 24 feet wide, was $290,555 with the county contributing $38,000 worth of in-kind work.
"It's a nice addition to the county," Oliver said.
Commissioners also approved starting the process for the construction of another bridge using the Missouri Department of Transportation's Off-
systems Bridge Replacement Program which allocates funds for counties based on their square footage of deficient bridges.
The project, which will be on County Road 522 where it crosses the Wolf Hole Lateral No. 2, will be "a little shorter bridge," Smith said.
He recommended initiating the project now as the program, which has been around for about 15 years, isn't likely to last much longer. "It's too sweet a program to stay," Smith said.
The project won't be billed until 2007.
* Commissioners reappointed Claudia Arington, director of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, and Lonnie Thurmond, community developer for East Prairie, as the county's representatives for the Southeast Missouri Economic Development Alliance.
"We have our funding for three years," Arington advised of SMEDA.
Arington also entered a request for $3,000 in Missouri County Tourism funding for 2006.
"It will be part of the 2006 budget," Blumenberg said.
* Stuart Bain of East Prairie was appointed by commissioners to fill an unexpired term on the county's Senate Bill 40 board.
The vacancy was created by the death of board member Layton Pickard.
Blumenberg said he thinks Pickard had just started another term so there is probably almost an entire three years left in the term.
* Commissioners will meet with Scott County commissioners at 9 a.m. Thursday regarding overdue medical invoices from a Scott County prisoner held in the Mississippi County Detention Center on a change of venue.
* A budget amendment to account for grant funds was approved by commissioners following a public hearing.