Kootenai Groups Plot Supermap County Sets Out To Chart ‘Anything Related To A Physical Location’

Picture a map of Kootenai County.

Now imagine the map shows parcels of land, and all the county’s streets, sewer lines, water lines, fire hydrants, manholes and power substations.

Imagine how useful such a detailed map would be, say, to a fire department responding to a fire. Or to a utility company handling a huge power outage. Or to county planners trying to keep pace with rapid growth.

Kootenai County is setting up a partnership with other organizations that use mapped data to make such information available. Some of it, such as maps of voter precincts and assessment parcels, already is available via the Internet.

“Anything related to a physical location could accurately be tracked and analyzed,” said Mike McDowell, the county’s senior deputy assessor, who has been instrumental in creating the partnership. “This is the first collaborative effort in the state to do this.”

All the organizations involved - including Washington Water Power Co., the cities of Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and Rathdrum, Panhandle Area Council and the associated highway districts - will share mapping data to create as large a database as possible.

For WWP, the need for such detailed mapping information became painfully apparent during the ice storm two years ago. The utility realized it needed a way to determine priorities for power restoration when the whole system was down, said Bob Mansfield, a WWP representative.

The company sent out a questionnaire, asking customers for information, such as name, address, phone numbers and the type of organization located at the address, whether a home or business. The result was a detailed computerized map of Spokane County. Now WWP can quickly determine who is affected in each service area when a power substation goes down.

WWP can also cross-reference that data with planning information.

“I can tell in an instant what impact planning scenarios would have on the load on our substations,” Mansfield said.

In Kootenai County’s partnership, all the information would be computerized and each organization would have to purchase the mapping software necessary to manipulate the information.

The county and other organizations also stand to save money by sharing data, McDowell said, because they won’t duplicate efforts so frequently.

The possibilities created by sharing geographic information are endless, he said.

Here are a few examples:

Currently, when the county needs building permit information, staff members drive to each city to pick up hard copies. With the shared database, all that information would be available at the touch of a button.

When counties or cities have rezoning hearings, all residents within 300 feet of the proposed site have to be notified. With the geographic information system, residents’ addresses and phone numbers within that circle can be easily identified. “You would have an instant mailing list,” McDowell said.

Emergency vehicles dispatched to a fire or medical crisis would be able to pinpoint the location on a map more easily, quickly determining the fastest route.