2006-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Project working group and the DEP Mass. Estuaries or issues and the Town's participation in GIS Day in Program Implementation Committee. He was also a November, when we hosted a day of public GIS edu. featured speaker at the EPA Cape Wastewater cation at Mashpee High School, Town Hall and the Conference in November and served as a panelist for Senior Center. the Cape Cod Low Impact Development Conference in April. Assistant Planner Tom Mayo has re-insti- Greater public awareness of the benefits of GIS tuted the Town's GIS Committee and meets with the is just the tip of the iceberg. The increased capacity of served as primary the Town to better serve the public through the use of Cape GIS Users Group. Charlotte staff and now as a member of the Affordable Housing GIS is, in part, made possible through the enthusiasm Committee. of a GIS Committee consisting of Town department ' heads and other employees with a stake in the success The Department has continued to play a major of the GIS. These efforts have manifested themselves role in the Town's wastewater planning,nitrogen man- in many ways, such as the use of the GIS at all agement and water quality protection activities Planning Board meetings,the planned implementation through assistance to the Sewer Commission,prepara- of Mobile GIS-based solutions in Town fire vehicles tion and implementation of development regulations and the availability of GIS data to the Police and coordination with the Waquoit Bay National Department's crime analysis program. Much of this Estuarine Research Reserve, the Cape Cod progress has been made financially feasible through Commission's Water Resources staff, the DEP the foresight of the Cable and Advanced Technology Massachusetts Estuaries Program and other agencies. Advisory Board. Through an organized procurement plan, the Planning Department has developed an With the change from the Land Bank to the advanced GIS capacity. These purchases include a Community Preservation Committee,we are no longer new large format plotter and a new large format scan as actively involved in open space acquisition as in the ner that will allow the Town to digitally archive its past, although we continue to work with the estimated 15,000 paper maps and plans and to create Conservation Commission on occasional small pur- large format maps and prints for use at board meetings chases. Through the Mashpee National Wildlife and for the public. As part of this effort, Charlotte has Refuge Management Committee, we have continued been trained in GIS and scanning and begun work on to work on the Mashpee NWR Coordination Plan, the project. In addition to the obvious benefits of dig- which focused this year on trash dumping and illegal ital archiving,once scanned,these maps and plans will ATV use as well as continued planning for emergency be linked to the GIS and subsequently be made readily public safety access, forest fire prevention and prop- available to all departments across Town over the erty signage. Town's network via a new 64 bit dual core GIS dedi- cated server, and in some cases to the general public Charlotte continues to maintain and enhance the through the Town's website. Other purchases include Planning Dept. / Planning Board pages of the Towns six concurrent desktop GIS software licenses, allow- web site for the convenience of the public, providing ing up to six Town employees to access the GIS soft- Planning Board agendas, minutes, notices, decisions ware at any given time. As part of this software expan and forms,pertinent planning related links,the Town's sion, we trained 22 Town personnel in the use of the Subdivision Regulations and Zoning Bylaw, project software. We also expanded the GIS capabilities of checklists,the Board's Special Permit Regulations and the Town by implementing a data collection program other planning-related documents. The Town's web using a GPS receiver on loan from the Mashpee Water address is hap://www.ci.mashpee.ma.us. District. As part of this program, 15 Town employees were trained in GPS data collection. GIS Annual Report Other programs planned for implementation in GIS is being integrated and used at an aggressive 2007 include the creation of a formal "GIS rate in the Town of Mashpee,building on past success Enhancement Plan",the organization of all current and with GIS, such as the launching of the Town's GIS past GIS data maintained by the Town and a new aer- website in February and the inclusion of the GIS as an ial flight to produce updated orthophotography,sched' integral component to the permit and complaint-track- uled for the spring of 2007. This orthophoto project is ing software used daily by the Building, Health, Fire the culmination of a cooperative effort between the and Planning Departments. This progress can be seen Town and the Army National Guard based at the Mass, in some of the more visible programs currently under Military Reservation. way, including an agreement between the Town and the Mashpee Enterprise to regularly publish GIS maps New public outreach programs for GIS include to help educate the public on important Town projects the addition of detailed instructions on how to use the 116