Site provides access to variety of records

Flathead County's GIS Department is putting more information at people's fingertips … a lot more information.

The department recently unveiled a new Web site that ties together a variety of public records, allowing users to find out everything from the location of the nearest geological fault to how many lots are in that subdivision down the street and where their septic systems are located.

The site operates as an interactive map. Users can navigate around the county and zoom in on just about any inhabited area. Different layers of data can then be highlighted, including the zoning designation for the area, Census data, political district boundaries, topography, hunting district boundaries and school district boundaries.

The site even taps into Department of Revenue tax records, so you can find out who owns a particular lot, how big their home is, how many bedrooms or bathrooms it has, and how much the property is assessed for.

GIS Program Manager Tom Reynolds discussed some of the Web site's capabilities during a presentation to the county's Long Range Planning Task Force.

"If there's public data available and someone asks for it, we can add it," Reynolds said. "We're adding data all the time."

For example, aerial photographs taken last summer were recently included as another layer. The imagery, which covers most of the valley floor, was funded by a combination of federal, state, local and private dollars.

"The state gave us $25,000 as part of a federal homeland security grant to pay for the imagery from Bigfork to Whitefish," Reynolds said. "I also put together a consortium of local agencies and private entities that were interested in procuring aerial photos. That paid for another 1,000 square miles. We'll have imagery for pretty much anywhere in the county that has an address."

The site isn't particularly helpful at a large scale because most of the layers don't "turn on" until you zoom in fairly close. However, at a small scale - the scale of a neighborhood or subdivision - a tremendous amount of information is available.

"All this underlying data is the real power of the system," Reynolds said.

There is no charge for using the site, and no special software is required.

On the Net:

http://maps.co.flathead.mt.us/

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com