City to use aerial photos to enhance mapping abilities

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Smile big Nevada, you are about to have your photograph taken.

Tuesday night the Nevada City Council gave preliminary approval to an agreement to pay Sanborn, Inc. $27,800 to take high-resolution black and white aerial photographs of Nevada and some of the surrounding area during early December if the weather permits.

These are not ordinary aerial photographs, but are orthographic photos, which are digitized and then corrected for the tilt of the camera and referenced to know geographic locations, making them useable as maps.

The current orthographic photos were taken in 1997 and provide a fuzzy image of the town.

The new photographs this project will provide will show objects as small as three inches across and will allow the city to get a view of the streets, sidewalk, sewer manholes, buildings and other infrastructure.

Craig Hubler, city manager, told the city council Tuesday night that these photos will allow the city to comply with new accounting rules that require each city to compile an inventory of all their physical assets and then come up with a dollar value for these assets, some of which are many years old.

"We must have the evaluation completed by July," Hubler said.

It will take about three months to complete the photographs and return the digital images on a DVD or hard drive to the city.

"We can then take measurements off the photos to do the valuation," he said.

Without this valuation the city annual audit will have a notice that the city is not in compliance with generally accepted accounting practices, Hubler said.

In addition to the photographs, the city is having Sanborn make a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model that will show the hills and valleys in town in a detail currently unavailable.

These elevation models will be constructed from elevation readings that are 25 feet apart. The best currently available DEMs show elevations that are based on readings about 33 feet apart.

Using computer technology, these orthographic photos can be overlaid on the DEM to show a three- dimensional image of the town.Other data layers can also be added to show the location of water and sewer lines.

These photographs will be of value for other purposes than meeting the accounting requirements.

They will also be used in the E-911 system the city is planning to install as well as homeland security and other safety issues.

For example, if a large propane tank were to leak, the fire department would want to evacuate people in the area that would be affected. Since propane is heavier than air it would be nice to know what area is lower than the leaking tank so only the affected people are evacuated, Hubler said.

Using the orthophotos and the digital elevation model and appropriate computer programs they will be able to determine what areas the propane is likely to impact and since modern E-911 systems have call-back capability the dispatchers could call the homes in the area to alert the residents, he told the council.

Hubler told the council that these images will also allow the city to provide information of engineering quality to developers, saving them the time and expense of collecting this information.

A lot of the information that is needed relates to underground installations like water and sewer lines that are hard to find.

"It can be frustrating," Hubler said.

Hubler said that this information would also be of help for assessment management, zoning, law enforcement and environmental issues.

Since this is being paid for with public money the information developed will also be available to other businesses and individuals.

In other business the council:

* Gave final approval to a general ordinance to allow the city to regulate the volume of radios and stereos in vehicles.

* Gave final approval to a general ordinance to make the city code agree with state statues regulating concealed firearms.

* Passed on second reading a general ordinance correcting the wording in the city's sewer ordinances so the city can qualify for state grants for sewer improvements.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance amending the 2004 city budget so it agrees with actual collections and expenditures.

* Passed on second reading a general ordinance removing parking from the south side of Douglas Street adjacent to the heliopad for the Nevada Regional Medical Center for safety reasons.

* Passed on first reading a general ordinance setting the procedures the IMPACT Tourism board must follow to issue their annual grants from the city's guest tax receipts.

* Passed on second reading a general ordinance approving an agreement with Consolidated Public Water Supply District No. 1 to make it possible for the city to provide sewer service to housing developments that are inside the Nevada city limits and receive their water from PWSD No. 1. The agreement provides a method for the water district to share water meter readings with the city and to have the water district shut off the water to customers who do not pay their monthly sewer tax bill from the city.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving an agreement with Experience Works to help place older workers with the city. Experience Works, which was formerly known as Green Thumb, helps older workers re-enter the job market by providing training and subsidizing initial employment.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a 12-month contract with Southwestern Bell for Plexar II local telephone service.

* Postponed consideration of a bare bones electric franchise for Aquila Inc. until the Dec. 7 meeting, when the council will consider both an electric and gas service franchise.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving an agreement with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission for a grant to fund the city's taxi coupon program.

* Held a public hearing and passed on first reading a special ordinance annexing 14.5 acres of property on South Spring Street owned by Bill G. and Janet F. Erwin into the city limits. The Erwins plan to build a housing development on the property.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance establishing the Erwin Addition Neighborhood Improvement District. The Erwins want to use NID financing to run sewer lines within the development with the cost of the sewer lines being paid for by purchasers of each house.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance ordering the preparation of a proposed assessment roll for Erwin Addition NID base on the estimated project cost.

* Adopted Resolution No. 1106 approving an estimated $330 in travel expenses for Craig Hubler to attend the Missouri Transportation and Development Council Conference on Dec. 9 in Jefferson City.