Cooperation Benefits Counties
The Huntington County Surveyor's Office needed a more reliable way to calculate drainage assessments
for land owners. When rain runoff flows into county-regulated drains, the quantity of water is
calculated and land owners pay a fee based on that amount. The fees, in turn, fund drainage
reconstruction and maintenance projects. The Huntington County Surveyor wanted to replace
antiquated, unsupported assessment software with software that could utilize the County's
GIS data. It also needed to be dependable, open source, user-friendly, and affordable.
The Surveyor recognized that working with other counties would result in a well-rounded,
less expensive assessment program. He contacted the consulting firm that had created
Huntington County's GIS and asked if they were aware of any counties who might be interested in
working together.
In the end, seven counties agreed to collaborate on designing the software specifications.
The specs would improve compliance with State guidelines for drainage assessment and meet the counties' exact requirements.
The consulting company organized a number of workshops to determine how the software should function. The final
version of the software was built and installed based on the counties needs, and is now fully operational.
Results
- Customers receive fair and accurate drainage assessments
- Cooperation between counties lowered overall expenses for the project
- Adherence to State guidelines and input from multiple counties means the software can be used
in any Indiana county with appropriate hardware and data
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