Collaborative Government Blog

Regional Project Brings over $71,000 of Assistance to Local GIS Efforts

In our March article we shared the five key goals and outcomes for the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council GIS project. In this article we want to share how a majority of the funding is being spent.

The goal for this regional GIS project is to make available critical GIS data layers to emergency responders (especially Incident Management Teams) so important landmarks, streets, infrastructure, shelters, etc. can be quickly located in an emergency by both those familiar and unfamiliar with the effected area.

We have finished the data inventory and gap analysis. These results will aid counties in determining priority GIS data layers that need to be developed. During this process, a consistent theme has been the need for software, equipment and training to help local governments “build” critical GIS data layers. Following is how help is being provided through a grant from the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council:

Equipment purchases:

• Eleven counties will receive single-use ArcView software including two additional years of maintenance
  
• Two counties will receive an ArcReader Extension
  
• One county will receive a Maplex Extension
  
• Four counties will receive Mapping Grade GPS units
  
• ArcView software with the two additional years of maintenance is being provided to the regional 911 back-up site and the Incident Management Team trailer
  
• The region will acquire four additional Mapping Grade GPS units that will be available to counties within the region to use in building critical GIS data layers
  
• Two 1 terabyte external hard drives will be acquired to provide regional data layers to the Incident Management Team and the regional 911 back-up site
  
• 24 USB flash drives will be purchased so that the critical GIS data layers can be made available to emergency responders literally “at their fingertips”

Training opportunities:

• Beginning hands-on GIS training is being provided throughout the region. 13 individuals attended the 2-day training in Pratt. 24 individuals are set to attend this same training in Wichita in May.
  
• A one-day “hands-on” GPS training is being provided three different times within the region.

The 19 counties in the South Central region are Barber, Barton, Butler, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Marion, McPherson, Pawnee, Pratt, Reno, Rice, Sedgwick, Stafford and Sumner.

What can you do?
If this information piques your interest as being important to your jurisdiction, take a minute and share this article with your county’s representative on your Regional Homeland Security Council. This is a project that can be easily replicated in other Homeland Security regions. For more information on replication, please contact Jessica Frye, Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, Geospatial Technologies Section.

Joining The Kansas Collaborative in this South Central regional GIS collaborative effort are the following state and federal partners: Kansas Adjutant General’s Department – Division of Emergency Management, State GIS Policy Board, Data Access and Support Center (DASC) and the U.S. Geological Survey. Shelly Abbott-Becker, KAC Board member, was also instrumental in gaining local buy-in for this effort. Documents related to this project can be found here.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel

Hamilton County Saved $250,000 on a 1R Paving Project.

The Kansas Collaborative has been saying for some time that the 1R Project could mean real savings to counties. Now we are beginning to get the documentation to back up this belief. As you read this article remember that KDOT has well over fifty projects every year that can produce savings if the road superintendent and the commissioners are willing to do their homework. The Kansas Collaborative and KDOT will do everything we can to let you know when KDOT will be in your county. Now enjoy reading about how Hamilton County took advantage of such a situation.

Delmar Hammond, Road Superintendent of Hamilton County, used the information provided by the 1R Project Notification Initiative of the Kansas Collaborative to save the county $250,000 on an 11 mile paving project located approximately 9 miles south of Coolidge. This initiative involves the advance notification of KDOT highway projects so that locals can take advantage of the economies involved in having a highway contractor move into the county.

Hamilton County is located next to the Colorado border west of Garden City, and has a population of 2,600. There is rarely a highway contractor set up in the county, so it is difficult to obtain good pricing on county projects. If a contractor bids a county project he has to include the mobilization cost of moving his operation to the county for just one project. Hamilton County needed to overlay 11 miles of road to some dairies that was getting heavy truck traffic. The estimated cost of the paving project was $2 million.

In 2006 Delmar was informed of upcoming KDOT projects in Hamilton County and he began forming a plan on how to use this knowledge to reduce the cost of the county’s paving project. He worked with his consulting engineer, Jon Halbgewachs of Kirkham Michael, to schedule the letting at the optimum time to receive the best bids. There were actually two highway contractors working in the county when the bids were received for the project, and they received 6 bids. The low bid was from APAC at a bid price of $1,750,000, APAC was one of the contractors working on a KDOT project in the county. This bid was $250,000 less than the initial estimate made two years earlier. This was a win-win situation, with APAC not having to include mobilization for the county project they could do the work cheaper and still make a profit.

Hamilton County also utilized the State Transportation Revolving Fund to finance the project rather than selling bonds locally. Use of the revolving fund resulted in a lower interest rate as well as legal fees involved in selling the bonds.

We want to congratulate Delmar Hammond and the County Commissioners on the success of their project. We hope that many other counties will take advantage of the 1R Project. Please feel free to call Norm Bowers (785-272-2585) or Joel Wright (816-914-5344) if you have questions.