GIS Contract

Geographic Information Systems has proven to be an indispensable tool for conducting City business. Initially, it was used for high level analysis of infrastructure, and for generating maps and displays illustrating various aspects of the City.
The following information (data layers) is available:
Property data - acreage, zoning, ownership, building square footage and year built
Sewer lines, sewer laterals, lift stations, and manhole covers as well as digital scans of all sewer as-built drawings
Water lines, water laterals, water valves, and curb stops as well as digital scans of all water as-built drawings
Electric lines, electric services, transformers, and poles as well as digital scans of all electric as-built drawings
Aerial photos for any property in the City of Lake Mills
Streets centerlines, street right-of-ways, storm sewers and street signs
Elevation data per USGS digital elevation model
The City acquired digital aerial ortho-photos in 2004, which are a principal component of the City's GIS. The City cooperated with Jefferson County to get digital ortho-photos with a six inch pixel resolution. The digital aerials are used to underlay the map layers and help greatly to understand the relationships between the digital map information and the actual built environment. A number of houses and buildings have been constructed since 2004, as well as numerous room additions, patio covers, etc., which are not represented by the aerial photos. Because the aerial photos are so important to the GIS, the City will again work closely with Jefferson County on ordering the next set of aerials.
The initial software acquisition (ArcView, ArcInfo and ArcIMS) was purchased in 2005 by the Utilities. Annual maintenance has been paid for by the Utilities in order to keep technical support and to receive periodic upgrades and technical fixes to existing software. However, as with all technology, GIS software is constantly evolving and changing, and ESRI has extensively redesigned their software (ArcGIS) to include more tools and more features. The City is upgrading to current software in order to keep up with latest advances in GIS technology. Staff is working with ESRI to identify the most cost effective way to keep the City's GIS software current.
The Council approved a GIS Coordinator in the 2010 Budget. City Staff decided to evaluate the option of contracting for the continued maintenance rather then hiring a new employee. After reviewing several option and contractors, staff recommends approving the contract with Strand for GIS services which is included in the packet.