Long-time subscribers to this newsletter might recall an announcement that was made a little over a year ago about a small town on the coast of Maine that made the decision to embark on a project to apply mapping technology to the management of their municipal data.
Westport Island is a quintessential Maine community. As its name implies, it is surrounded by water, with a single two-lane bridge its only access to the mainland. According to the census figures, its population is a little over 700 people, although, as is typical in this part of the world, this number is bolstered by the influx of summer visitors “from away.” It is fair to say, therefore, that this is a community of modest means; a fact that makes what they have been able to achieve all the more remarkable.
The previously published account of their work described the efforts of a handful of eager citizens to digitize the town’s property boundaries using XMap; a process which had yet to be completed. At that time, the subsequent phases of the project—integrating the town’s tax records and providing public access to the data—seemed a long way off.
Fast-forward to the present. Not only have the town officials completed the digitization process and tied in the property ownership information, they have created GIS layers showing wetland areas, trails, shoreline zoning setbacks, and much more. All of this data is available for public scrutiny via an XMap Web site that was created and is maintained by the same town officials. Visitors to the site, which includes high-resolution aerial imagery as an optional base map, can quickly search for properties by owner, map-lot number, or several other criteria.
By way of concluding this article, it is worth reprinting the final paragraph from the original piece.
Westport Island is an example of a community with limited means who have recognized the value in efficiently managing critical municipal assets and have not been deterred by their modest size. The lesson learned form this example is that if Westport Island can successfully adopt and apply GIS technology, there is no reason why towns of a similar size cannot do the same.
