Wabash County Government has successfully gone online with their Geographical Information System (GIS) data using The Schneider Corporation's "Beacon" Web Portal. The GIS information for Wabash County has been released free to the public to provide access to property information, digital aerial photography, and tax data. With 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access, the public no longer has to adjust their work schedules around the Courthouse business hours. Having GIS online will save the community both time and money.
The Geographic Information System (GIS) is an organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information.
The information on the Beacon Website was compiled and prepared from years of data established from Wabash County Government records. It is designed or intended for general use by the public and government agencies. All Graphic data supplied by Wabash County has been derived from public records that are constantly changing, therefore it is not warranted for content or accuracy.
Each of the layers of this project involves products that need to be maintained. For digital aerial photographs, the county will need to continue to be flown every few years to capture the changes that have occurred during that period. For the property assessment portion of these layers, the Assessor's Office will maintain and improve the data that was acquired for this project. The Auditor's Office will prepare and make changes on the property layer which is created by the property conversions. Layers with data covering roads, railroads, ditches, and section corners will be constantly evaluated by the Surveyor's Office.
The county has goals to continue to add more layers to the Geographical Information System as data and preparation time allow. A Public Access System (PAS) which is located on three public computers, (two in the Auditor's Office, one handicap accessible in the Surveyor's Office) is in place to provide GIS data for those seeking information and requiring personal navigational assistance.
As the Wabash County GIS project continues to expand we will strive to help other departments, businesses, communities and the general public do their jobs more efficiently through the use of the Geographical Information System.
