With the forward motion of technology, many local governments have taken advantage of what is on the market in order to bolster the productivity of their daily operations. For the Village of Morton Grove, IL Public Works Department, the use of such technology was twofold; one being the change out and upgrade of all water meters to a wireless meter reading system and two, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to monitor the locations and status of these meter change outs.

Municipality commonly will invest in or be provided with a piece of software that they can use to meet the demands of their daily tasks. Although this is helpful in many cases, there is often a level of data accuracy and data quality - that may suffer labeling some of this software as one to be used with caution. Recently the Village of Morton Grove, IL Fire Department was provided with a great piece of software from their regional dispatch center that had many of the functions necessary to complete the day to day functions but lacked one major component, reliable geographic data.

About every ten years a Fire Department conducts a review of their services in order to increase their chances of getting a better Insurance Services Organization (ISO) rating; the better a rating the Fire Department receives, the more money a commercial property will save on their fire insurance. In order to prepare for this evaluation, The Village of Morton Grove, IL Fire Department is using all the techniques they can find to boost their chances of a better overall rating. A technology aid that was not around the last time they conducted an ISO evaluation was the Geographical Information System or better known as GIS.

One of the disadvantages that may arise while creating an informative map is the amount of time it can take to create new data where it does not previously exist. But what if that data already existed in a format that you could use? The advantage of using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for mapping is the system’s versatility to handle the other formats of data, which in the end can save the user a lot of time and money.

Springtime in the Chicago land area in some cases can mean more noise from construction then the sounds of birds chirping. And although the nice weather at this time of year allows for field crews to work with little disruption, local residents would often disagree that they are not disturbed. When streets are suddenly closed or traffic begins to build, residents of a community can certainly become irritated and thus complain to the community staff. Even though it is impossible to stop these complaints completely, a community can do their best to notify the residents where and when these big construction projects will be occurring, this is exactly what the Village of Morton Grove, IL did.

It is apparent that technology is getting better as new ways of using it are also on the rise. Within Geographical Information Systems (GIS), technology also continues to advance and allow for data to be edited in many different environments. One enhancement of technology that GIS has encountered is the ability to make a copy of a database, release it to a field crew for disconnected editing and then bring those field edits back into the original database. In GIS it is considered a “checkout database” and it is something that the Village of Morton Grove, IL is taking full advantage of for their Street Sign Inventory.

The versatility of a Geographic Information System (GIS) is usually driven by the user’s request. Although some requests can be more complex than others, it is often times that simple GIS operations help to provide the easiest solutions. For the Village of Morton Grove, IL, the simple, quick and accurate data that the GIS could provide was all that was needed in order to help the Engineering Department complete a survey regarding the selection of the most optimal site for a solar panel installation.

Although it is possible to put a number on the purchase price of a device that notifies people of an emergency, giving people amble time to reach safety is priceless. Like all Public Safety personnel who pride themselves in the art of providing a safe place for their residents to live, the Village of Morton Grove, IL Fire Department is no different. They continue to look for new ways to ensure that they know their town and they know what their residents need.

Understanding the trends of what is happening in the housing market is difficult to do especially if you are not in the realty business. Houses may be sold, rented or even more dramatic, torn down in order to build a new one. In this article we will focus on two parts of the housing market that at times can have a significant impact on a local community, housing demolitions and property foreclosures.

According to federal law, “Adult Uses” are protected uses under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and if a community does not provide a sufficient amount of land area for this use to exist, the municipality can be considered as violating free speech. Furthermore, this municipality could end up in Federal Court.

Almost every day of the week, police officers are called to the scene of a traffic accident to provide assistance. But how many times does a police officer report to the same place twice? Moreover, do they report to high traffic volume intersections more than smaller residential streets for these accidents? These were the types of questions the Police Department for the Village of Morton Grove, IL aimed to study. The Police Department wanted to analyze how many accidents were happening every three months and where exactly were these accidents taking place. Furthermore, they needed and easy method for displaying these results so they could attempt to find out what was causing these accidents to happen.

More often than not a local community has a need to notify their residents when a large event is about to occur. Whether it is a fourth of July fireworks display or a street closing for a street festival, residents deserve to know when something is going to affect them and the neighborhood around them. For the Village of Morton Grove, IL the act of notifying residents has been practiced in many ways but it was not until the implementation of the Geographic Information System (GIS) that a simpler method came to fruition.

Ensuring proper lighting of streets is a public service that local communities take satisfaction in providing. Without lights, streets would be impossible to drive on, walk on, or even live along. Therefore, the Public Works Department for Village of Morton Grove, IL decided it was crucial to create a street light inventory of lights that they maintained. This inventory would help them provide better service for their residents. Moreover, they also wanted to locate the electrical lines that supplied power to each streetlight in order to be certain that field crews would not accidently come into contact with them when digging for other utilities.

Making sure that all residents feel safe within their place of residence is a service that a Police Department takes satisfaction in providing. The act of fighting burglary crime can be categorized as a part of providing this important service. The Police Department for Village of Morton Grove, IL decided that to be able to analyze when burglaries were happening as well as where they were happening might help to establish a trend in crime activity. Moreover, being able to identify a trend in burglaries would give the Police Department a better idea on how to fight it. This is where the Police Department decided to enlist the services of the Geographical Information Services (GIS) Department in order to help them map out where these burglaries were occurring.

Whether it is to take a shower or fill up a glass of water people use the resource of water everyday. Although the process of getting this resource to the consumers seems to happen without much exposure, it is definitely noticed when the water stops running. The procedures that a local community conducts in order to provide their residents with clean and useable water is something that they take very seriously; so it is no wonder why they continually investigate the strength of the water utility infrastructure. For the Village of Morton Grove, IL they have decided to do just that.

Within the sector of local government there are many important services that a community provides for their residents. Among the long list, one service that often gets a lot of discussion is the condition of the streets, or better yet, the street resurfacing program. Whether residents file a complaint about the vast number of potholes on a street or someone passing through town inquires about a refund for a road induced flat tire, the general condition of a street attracts a fair amount of attention. With these ideas in mind the Village of Morton Grove, IL decided to take a different approach at surveying the condition of their streets in an effort to better understand the current state of their road infrastructure.

The ways in which waste is removed from our home and how water makes it into our glasses are often overlooked as processes that just happen on their own. This is simply not true. In fact, these services provided by the Village of Morton Grove, IL are looked after very carefully and thought of as serious village operations. Moreover, it is safe to say that having an up-to-date inventory of where these utilities are precisely located is a necessity as well; this is where GIS can help.