GREEN BAY, Wis. (April 8, 2010) — In an emergency, even just a few seconds can make a world of difference.
For the Brown County 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Club and Mi-Tech Services, Inc., the opportunity to make that difference presented itself recently in the form of Brown County’s Green Isle Park.
The road to making that difference began last year when Brown County 4-H Youth Development Educator Judy Wolniakowski applied for grant funding to found the SET club in Brown County.
Once the application was approved, however, she realized there was a slight problem — none of her current volunteers had the know-how to teach it.
Wolniakowski reached out to the local community for technical experts to serve as volunteer leaders for the club’s geospatial project. Her call was answered by Phil Paradies and Howard Herrild of Mi-Tech Services, a subsidiary of Brownsville-based Michels Corporation that specializes in utility infrastructure design.
Paradies, Mi-Tech’s senior geographical information system (GIS) manager, and Herrild, the company’s survey manager, agreed to lead the eight-week course that began in early-February.
Twelve club members in grades 3-6 learned all about the evolution of map making, from the basic elements of old paper maps to the latest cutting-edge technologies. Thanks to the generosity of ESRI and Seiler Instruments, students were able to use state-of-the-art ArcGIS mapping software and Trimble Global Positioning System (GPS) units, which had a combined worth of $60,000.
In the hope of providing a more authentic experience for students, Paradies contacted Jeff DuMez, GIS Coordinator and Land Information Officer for the Brown County Planning and Land Services Department, and asked if the class could make itself useful to the county.
As it turned out, it could.
While Brown County has a number of GIS map layers, one important layer for 911 dispatch is called a “common places” layer. DuMez said this is a catch-all locator with names of things a person might see in an area they’re unfamiliar with.
“A person might not really know where they are, but they might see a K-Mart here and a Hardees across the street,” DuMez said. “The dispatcher can then key in the words and help to get an exact location.”
DuMez and Paradies decided the 4-H Club could be useful in mapping an area that had multiple entrances but not a great level of detail. Green Isle Park fit the bill perfectly.
“He thought we could help dispatchers narrow down which entrance would be best to use based on what part of the park the caller is in,” Paradies said. “A few minutes or even seconds in those cases can make a big difference.”
The club collected data on March 25 with the help of Mi-Tech Senior Project Manager Jon Gruber. It spent its final meeting last Thursday, April 1, in the classroom making the GIS maps. The final file was submitted to DuMez this past Tuesday, April 5, and DuMez said the data will likely be in the system by the end of this week.
“We are very thankful and really appreciate the work that (Mi-Tech) and the students did,” DuMez said. “It’s nice to get that input and help from community members.”
DuMez said it was the first area park that has been mapped in this fashion, but that he hoped to do more in the future.
For Wolniakowski, who wasn’t really sure how everything would shake out when she reached out for help, the result couldn’t have been better.
“It’s just wonderful that Phil and Howard volunteered and put all this time into the project,” Wolniakowski said. “I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am — I was on a conference call with other people at different 4-H clubs who got grants, and absolutely no one else as far as I can tell has been able to give kids an experience like this and have their data included with the 911 system.”
Mi-Tech Services Survey Manager Howard Herrild helps members of Brown County’s 4-H SET Club use their Trimble GPS units.
