Digital storage of property data can help the county with notonly tax assessing, but also economic development, 911 services andin other areas, a specialist told supervisors Monday.

Bobby Smith, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialistwith the Southwest Mississippi Planning and Development District,gave a presentation on the digital data system during Monday’sboard meeting. Depending on the county’s level of involvement,digital data storage can combine county mapping, soil and forestinformation and other data for use in carrying out various dutiesand services.

“The GIS puts it all together and tells you the things you needfor taxation,” Smith said.

Supervisors have begun preliminary discussions toward gettingnew aerial property maps made in 2006. New maps, which are used toshow how the county is divided into parcels, are required every 10years.

“If you’ve got to do it, you might as well do it digital,” Smithsaid.

Smith said the county can do more with digital informationstorage.

He said it can be used as an inventory tool that can help withschool bus routing using 911 road information, provide accurateglobal positioning for structures and allow the county to competemore effectively in economic development. GIS could be used toidentify parcels that meet a prospective business or industry’sspecific location, soil, water or rail access-relatedrequirements

“The soil map would benefit us more than anything,” said TaxAssessor-Collector Nancy Jordan, who explains that soil type is afactor used to determine how land is assessed for agriculture usevalue.

Smith said using the GIS is less time-consuming, pointing outthat gathering various information from hard copies could takehours or days while GIS could provide it in 30-45 minutes.

Supervisors did not act following Smith’s presentation. He didnot have a cost estimate for implementing GIS in the county.

“It’s hard to give an estimate until we know which way thecounty is going to go,” Smith said, mentioning it would beinfluenced by how quickly the system is implemented and what levelof involvement the county pursues.

Flying the county to develop the aerial maps should cost between$25,000 and $150,000, depending on the level of detail the countywants, Smith said. He said the $80,000-$90,000 service level wouldsufficient for GIS interaction.

Smith and planning district officials were expected to developsome preliminary GIS cost estimates and report back to thecounty.

“You have enough lead time to decide what you want to do and howyou want to do it,” Smith told the board.