More information about using the tool can be found here.

To see how to add this data and use it, please visit this link.  You will need Adobe Flash to view this tutorial.

Currently, the Kenton and Campbell County Fiscal Courts, a number of cities in each county, the water and sanitation districts, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Duke Energy, and just recently Cincinnati Bell, upload their construction projects to the GIS-based database called Envista.

All participating entities can see current and upcoming projects through the central communication tool, and can identify conflicts and opportunities to work together.

“This tool is helping cut down on the time spent coordinating,” said NKAPC’s deputy director for GIS administration, Trisha Brush, GISP. “This empowers each of the participating jurisdictions to use their road construction and maintenance dollars wisely—which ultimately benefits the tax- and rate-payers who pay the bills.”

The City of Covington recently used information from the system to collaborated with the water district on a few streets where the city had plans to repave and the water district had plans to replace water mains. “Coordinating this work through Envista saved the city $18,000,” said Mike Yeager, PE, MPA, assistant Covington city engineer.

“The program made an immediate impact on the way the City of Covington coordinates utility work with our resurfacing projects,” said Yeager. “Not only are we provided with an email as soon as a potential conflict is detected, the city and the various utility companies are now able to coordinate and prioritize projects into the future based upon each others needs and budgets.”

Brush says this is just one example of the savings that program participants are realizing by collaborating in this regional effort. This, she asserts, will benefit everyone because these savings will allow more road work to be completed.

NKAPC is wrapping up phase four of the project currently with plans to finish uploading all remaining jurisdictions into the database. “After this phase is completed, we plan to start a user’s group for all the jurisdictions participating in the program,” Brush said.

The quarterly user’s group meetings will give NKAPC feedback on the software and allow users to put a face with a name for those with whom they’re coordinating.

The Envista online coordination tool is being funded jointly by Kenton and Campbell County Fiscal Courts, the Kenton and Campbell County PVAs, Northern Kentucky Water District, SD1, and NKAPC.

“These monuments are an asset to the counties,” said Dennis Gordon, FAICP, NKAPC’s executive director. “These ordinances were adopted to protect the monuments and the public investments that made them possible.”

The ordinances were supported strongly by the local surveying and engineering community. These groups depend on the accuracy of the monuments as a basis for new land ownership records.

The 212 monuments set in pairs two miles apart across Kenton and Campbell counties represent exact locations on the earth using degrees of longitude and latitude. The monument locations provide highly-accurate data and serve as the basis for quality reports and CAD drawings from land surveyors.

Seven monuments have been destroyed or removed in the past ten years; it costs almost $4,000 each to repair or replace them. LINK-GIS funds replaced six of them before the ordinance was implemented. Now, if monuments are destroyed, the ordinance calls for those who disrupt the monument network to fund the repairs.

“SD1 staff are providing oversight for the ordinances through administration of their land disturbance permit process. If construction activities will disturb any of these monuments, its staff will alert applicants of the need to comply with the counties’ ordinances,” Gordon said.

“This will help immensely because the only way NKAPC would know if one was going to be disturbed is if it was self-reported. They’re helping us with this process,” he concluded.

More information on the ordinances and what they require is available from NKAPC’s GIS staff.

March 4, 2010 – Tour the new Link-GIS website!

Two instructional sessions – 9:00 and 11:00AM
Campbell County Fiscal Court Commission Chambers
1098 Monmouth Street, Newport

March 5, 2010 – Hands on training for the new Link-GIS website!

Two instructional sessions – 9:00 and 11:00AM
Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission Chambers
2332 Royal Drive, Fort Mitchell

March 17, 2010 – What’s new on the Link-GIS website!

One LIVE internet session at 10:00AM EST

RSVP for these events by calling 859-331-8980 or emailing.