Aerial imagery would help Cedar County with property assessment

HARTINGTON – Cedar County is searching for a new company to take aerial photos of properties throughout the county.

Ryan Poots, an Omaha-based senior district sales manager for EagleView, gave a presentation on June 25 to the board of commissioners on the services the business provides, including aerial imagery, property insights and software.

He presented examples of the company’s high-resolution aerial imagery – sharp and current photos – and geospatial data that he said are valuable assets to county governments.

Poots explained the photos the business takes – using sophisticated cameras attached to airplanes flying at low altitudes – include top-down – orthographic – and side-angle – oblique – images that provide three-dimensional views and are useful when combined with accurate property data.

The benefits these photos from the air would provide the county include: - Combining aerial imagery from multiple angles with geographic information system data.

- Conducting fast and accurate property assessments and analyzing more properties in less time.

- Improving police and fire department response times and preparing for emergencies and natural disasters.

- Inspecting and analyzing infrastructure and public assets.

Several county officials from various offices – assessor, emergency management and highway, to name a few – attended the nearly 60-minute presentation.

County Assessor Becky Dresden described EagleView as a “really good” company – which is headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. – and noted most of the counties surrounding Cedar County use its services.

“You can measure with it,” Dresden said in a follow-up interview. “You can do so many things with it.”

Poots noted the county assessor’s office could use the business’ software and aerial imagery to easily measure distance and height for accurate property analysis.

He was presenting to the commissioners because the county assessor’s office needs to find a new company to take aerial pictures of properties throughout the county.

Dresden noted gWorks – an Omaha-based business that provides the county its mapping system software – no longer provides aerial imagery to accompany it.

The county assessor’s office is on a sixyear review cycle of needing new photos – including aerial ones – taken of the county’s communities and rural properties, with pictures taken annually in different locations.

For example, Dresden noted photos of Randolph are taken one year, then another year we'll see pictures of Hartington and Coleridge taken, and photos of rural properties outside of cities and villages in the county are taken another year, etc.

She said the aerial images are needed by the county assessor’s office to see “if anything has been taken off, if anything new has been built – basically just to inspect the parcel.”

After Poots’ presentation, the commissioners thanked him for the information and later took no action after talking with other county officials about the services EagleView provides.

The potential price tag of entering into an agreement with the company made the commissioners hesitate, with estimated total costs ranging from just over $86,000 to more than $176,000, depending on what proposal the county might choose.

In the meantime, the county is seeking cost estimates from other businesses like EagleView that provide similar services.