The Sidwell Company, a St. Charles, Illinois-based provider of geographic information systems, aerial photography and related services, has been awarded a contract by Brown County, Illinois for development of a comprehensive countywide GIS, a new parcel numbering system, and implementation of Sidwell's Parcel Builder-MapPlotter software.

The contract also calls for Sidwell to perform acreage computations for all agricultural parcels within the county. The computations will be compared to soil productivity indexes to determine valuations for tax assessment. In connection with these services, Sidwell is to implement a Sidwell-developed GIS application to support conversion and maintenance of digital map layers for use in assessing the agricultural parcels. This application, called FARMS (Farmland Assessment and Report Management System) can be used to generate reports detailing computed valuations based on soil types and acreage, as well as to create thematic maps portraying soil types, land use, productivity indexes, or valuation.

Sidwell has been awarded a contract by Lee County, Illinois for professional GIS services, including development of a countywide agricultural land use layer and implementation and training services. The contract also calls for Sidwell to perform acreage computations for all agricultural parcels within the county. The computations will be compared to soil productivity indexes to determine valuations for tax assessment. In connection with these services, Sidwell is to implement a Sidwell-developed GIS application to support conversion and maintenance of digital map layers for use in assessing the agricultural parcels.

Sidwell has been awarded a contract by the Allen County, Indiana, for hosting the city's GIS data website. This contract represents an extension of the services previously provided by Sidwell for the Allen County GIS project. Using ArcIMSä technology from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) of Redlands, Ca., Sidwell will create and host a website dedicated to providing full-time access to Allen County's GIS data, including information pertaining to parcel data, property tax system data, property appraisal system data, and digital aerial photography.

has been awarded a contract by Black Hawk County, Iowa for professional GIS services, including geodatabase data model creation; conversion of the county's existing digital cadastral data into an enterprise geodatabase; and data integration, software and training featuring ESRI ArcMap 9.0 and Sidwell's Parcel Builder software.

Source: Sidwell, Dec. 7, 2004