Carbon contracts for aerial mapping

Carbon County will soon have a better idea of what developments have happened over the last decade.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved an agreement with Pictometry Corporation of Rochester, New York, for two flight 9-inch ortho imagery and 9-inch oblique imagery capture, 2017 change finder detection and building outlines, Pictometry Connect and Pictometry Connect Assessment. The cost for the services is $109,488.89.

Jason Shellhammer, GIS director for the county, said this action will allow the county to update its current aerial photography of the region, which hasn’t been updated since 2008, when the state participated in PA Map.

He said that the new images will provide a number of benefits because the imagery will be both of the footprints of the buildings, as well as a 360-degree view of the buildings.

“It’s a highly valuable product,” he said, noting that PA Map never provided oblique imagery, rather just aerial views looking straight down.

Shellhammer said that it will increase public safety and 911 responses to incidents because dispatchers will be able to see various entry points of a structure for police, fire and EMS when needed, as well as help update information in the tax assessment office because it will provide information that they may not have access to.

“They will be able to see new buildings, and instead of just measuring the building they will be able to measure up the side as well as the footprint of buildings,” he said.

This will be completed through the change finder portion of the package, which will take the 2018 images and overlay the 2008 images to see what is new, for example, the PA Solar Park in Nesquehoning, the Route 903 bridge in Jim Thorpe and any additions or constructions that took place over the last decade.

“It basically allows you to see any potential things that aren’t being fully or adequately assessed,” Shellhammer said. “It’s going to help with the revenue bases for the county, municipalities and the school districts. We think there is going to be significant findings, especially in some municipalities that aren’t doing very good reporting.”

The flyover, which will take only a day or two to complete, will take place between when snow has melted and leaves on the trees begin to grow.

“It’s called leaf off imagery,” Shellhammer said. “The reason to do leaf off is so we can get a better picture of the buildings.”

Once that is complete, Carbon will likely receive the images in June and be trained on the software before implementing it into its daily use.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that he believes it will be a great tool because it will put a lot of structures on the county’s maps that weren’t there in 2008.

“There is a lot of good things to it,” he said. “I’m very confident it will pay for itself, not only to the county, but the school districts and municipalities as well.”