January 2008

Dear Municipal Officials,

This coming year, as we continue the goal of identifying and providing shared service opportunities and enhanced services to municipalities, I wanted to inform you of three important Shared Services initiatives the County will be embarking on as we enter into the New Year. The benefits of a shared GIS database, Records Storage Facility and State Police Communication lines are vital initiatives that will help improve the availability and efficiency of government services while reducing the cost of local government to taxpayers. Details are outlined below.

Sincerely,
Brian M. Hughes

GIS Pictometry Aerial Images & Electronic Field Study Software Dempster Fire Training Academy

Meeting: February 14, 2008 / 10:00 -12:00
Dempster Fire Training Academy
Click here for Meeting Information

In 2008, Mercer County will begin offering shared services with municipalities using a newly developed online interface and GIS database.  The County's primary goal is to develop a comprehensive network of GIS users cooperating at a regional level to share and maintain accurate up-to-date basic and essential data and make it available for use in planning processes in a variety of situations throughout the region.

The County anticipates that the thematic data and maps will be used in both the short and long term for municipal growth management planning, innovative programs like Transfer of Development Rights, federal programs like the wetland mitigation bank program, grant applications, and other future planning programs that can be developed and realized through GIS.

• GIS Database and Interactive Mapping Tools
  Online interactive maps are valuable for many purposes, but a shared GIS can be a powerful data management and data integration tool, offering an information portal for local government staff as well as citizens. The Mercer County Planning Division will demonstrate newly developed online tools for working with County-hosted GIS data layers and lead a discussion of alternative scenarios and opportunities for the County to host and serve data for which municipal governments are primarily responsible.
  
  
• Pictometry International's Aerial Images and Electronic Field Study software
  Mercer County has invested in two series of high quality aerial photography, along with software for locating and viewing the photos, adding notes, measuring distances, areas and heights, locating objects by latitude and longitude, and viewing GIS data layers. The Mercer County Offices of Information Technology and Emergency Management will distribute external hard drives to each municipality with Electronic Field Study software and the 2006 library of aerial imagery.
  
  

Click Here for Municipal Pictometry Training Information

Primary layers of use: Aerial imagery; parcel lines (with MOD IV data attached including zoning); road centerlines; business and institutional locations; environmental information (streams & DEP wetlands; contour elevations; parks and open space).

Primary municipal departments to benefit from these services are:Emergency Management (Police/Fire): Transportation/Highways; Engineering/Planning; Code Enforcement; Tax Assessors; and Parks & Recreation.

The County of Mercer is in the process of reviewing proposals to conduct a feasibility study for a countywide Records Storage Facility and Service Center. An application for feasibility study funding support will be made to the NJ Dept. of Community Affairs SHARE Grant Program in early 2008.

In 2007, through PARIS (Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support) Grant funds, the Mercer County Office of Records Management conducted a Countywide records inventory and needs assessment on the status of records management practices, procedures and technology throughout County departments and agencies as well as within its municipalities. Copies of individual municipal assessments and recommendations were sent to each municipality. The data from these assessments will be instrumental in the development of the Countywide Records Management and Storage Facility Plan.

The long-term goal of Mercer's Records Management initiative is for the County to become a hub for archives and records management by providing related services to its constituent municipalities and to implement records management shared services between municipal governments. The most vital component of such a program is a Records Storage Facility and Service Center.

The feasibility study will determine the potential to retrofit or construct a new centralized storage facility that meets DARM (Division of Archives and Records Management) record storage requirements for county and municipal use. A shared facility will lower costs countywide by reducing the need to rely on third parties for records storage and maintenance. It will also provide a more structured records monitoring process.

Resolutions will be required to support the grant application from municipalities that agree to participate in the records storage facility study. If your municipality would like to participate in the study or for further information please contact Nancy Coffee, Office of Shared Services, at 609-989-6722 or email: ncoffee@mercercounty.org

In July of 2008, the NJ State Police will be discontinuing the current network communications architecture between the State Police and 376 state municipalities. NJ Counties will become responsible for serving as the hub for network communications to their municipalities. This initiative will help reduce the cost expense to the State Police and allow for increased bandwidth for current and enhanced applications.  Mercer County Office of Information Technology will be leading this project and will be contacting individual municipalities to discuss the logistics of this transfer of service and the installation of necessary router and line equipment for connection to each municipality. We will need the cooperation of municipalities to designate a department or point person within your municipality that we can contact to begin implementation of this new system.
Please forward contact information to:
Marc Geissel
Network Administrator
Office of Information Technology
mgeissel@mercercounty.org
609-989-6640