The Village of Skokie Beautification and Improvement Commission assists the Mayor and Trustees in landscaping and conservation issues. Every year, the Commission seeks out properties whose owners maintain it at an exceptional level. During this time, the commission visits each nominated property, taking pictures and notes. The most time consuming part of this process is driving to all of these properties. That is where the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS) comes in.

The Village of Skokie, Illinois Fire Department provides services to over 63,000 residents and is part of a Mutual Aid Agreement with surrounding communities. In order to provide the best possible service, Skokie’s Fire vehicles need to be equipped with detailed street maps outlining not only its own community, but the surrounding communities as well. For instance, if surrounding communities have low bridge clearances, one way streets, or other obstacles, the Village needs to know in order to proceed to the call safely and efficiently. The Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS ) provides this street map.

The Village of Skokie’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Team has been hard at work developing tools to increase productivity and simplify employee’s workflows related to geographic data. Through MapOffice Advanced, a customized web mapping application, Village employees have many tools aimed at extracting tabular data using geographic contents. This new tool, the Water Main Isolation Tool, is aimed at providing Village water maintenance crews the ability to find all water valves connected to a section of water main. Water crews can now simply click on a water main and find all connected valves eliminating field work and research. This in turn will save not only time, but also water during a main break which can become very messy during the winter months. In addition to showing connected valves, the tool documents affected water hydrants, which have importance if a fire were to break out in the vicinity during a main break.

The Village of Skokie’s Water and Sewer Department rely heavily on data within the Geographic Information System (GIS) for planning and field work. Field Note Mapbooks (FNM) were created to simplify the process of editing the data and bridge the gap between the field crews knowledge and the data projected in the Village’s GIS. Employees can make comments and corrections in the paper FNM and GIS will check the book on a quarterly basis to incorporate the changes. For example, if a valve is not shown or shown in the wrong location, an employee can draw and comment on the valve showing the correct location and providing all other important information. This process was just implemented and the first changes have been completed this month.

The Village of Skokie has begun the integration of streetlights into the Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is a technology that relates geographic features with tabular data, allowing users to view data from a central repository rather than disconnected databases. The integration of street lights will be a key asset to the Village’s street light and sign post maintenance. During the next few years, the engineering department will be overseeing the installation of new halogen light bulbs, replacing the old mercury vapor. Having the ability the track installation dates will help maintenance crews and other support staff in the field. This information will be shown in MapOffice Advanced™ in the community.

Address data is the backbone of the municipal government. Services, including refuse pickup and police and fire response, and taxes depend on current and accurate addressing. The Village of Skokie Community Development Department and Geographic Information System (GIS) staff have realized the importance of consolidating address databases in the recent months. A major factor in this decision was the difference in address data for a recent mass mailing.

The Village of Skokie has progressively added new users, taking advantage of the Village’s Geographic Information System (GIS). While adding users is key to the success of the GIS Program, new users have a learning curve for the new applications and software whether it be ArcView™ or MapOffice Advanced™. Training and demonstrations can alleviate many of the questions and issues users have with interacting with the new technology.

Nearly everything in life is related to location. Whether you are looking for a new job closer to home, a beach vacation or your set of missing car keys, everything is correlated to space and location. Geography is heavily associated with location and in recent history has become a staple in people’s everyday workflow. Google Maps StreetView, Bing Bird’s Eye View, MapQuest, and other mapping sites have created a niche in mainstream America that allows people to access geographic information (street names, directions, aerial photography) at the push of a button. This is the basis of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Emergencies happen when we least expect them which is why it is so important to be prepared. Situations arise in communities that, with the right preparations, can be easily contained and remedied. The Village of Skokie has a Geographic Information System (GIS) that incorporates mapping and analysis to better understand and prepare for emergencies.

Crime happens. Crimes are committed randomly, deliberately, while others are just crimes of opportunity. The Village of Skokie’s Police Department has been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better understand where and when crimes are committed. By using geographic analysis, the Police Department can identify hotspots of criminal activity.

Data comes in all shapes and sizes in a local government. Communities are the keeper of extensive data that pertains to buildings, infrastructure, businesses and the like. It is important for communities to use this data to the fullest extent, and MapOffice provides a way to do so. Data in MapOffice is visible but cannot be extracted into individual features. When other communities or contractors want information, it is necessary to provide a baseline of what is expected during this data transaction.

For years, data has been stored in file cabinets, basements and employee’s heads in the form of institutional knowledge. This was not necessarily a bad thing; the technology just was not available. Now that the movement to a digital world has begun, the transition has seemed slow at times. Having paper documents around is just the norm in an everyday workflow. But what if the information is not directly in front of you? Moving paper data to electronic databases has saved time and money for private and public entities across the world.

The Village of Skokie trustees recently voted to decrease landscape waste pickup service for the entire village. While not eliminating the service all together, the village decided that residents must call or sign up via the village website to receive brush pickup. In addition, the village would no longer pick up landscape waste. The village is now promoting the mulching of grass since it no longer accepts grass during curbside pick up.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie opened its doors to the public in April 2009. Dignitaries from around the world attended the opening, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker. The opening ceremonies were attended by an estimated 12,000 people. Planning for an event like this is a difficult endeavor because timing, placement and communication all need to be shared throughout each participating agency.

The cycle of weather in the Chicagoland area results in an instability that catches up with communities in the spring. Cleaning up after the harsh winter that batters the roadways and underlying water and sewer utilities can be a very demanding task. Every year streets are resurfaced and water mains are broken and then replaced. These tasks seem simple to the public: village crews go out, dig up the pavement, and replace it. What the public may not realize is the planning that is involved and the analysis which is provided by the Skokie Geographic Information Systems Department (GIS).

The Village of Skokie, IL Manager’s Office recently approached the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department with the idea of creating a map of the downtown area in order to highlight the local businesses and restaurants. This project started as a basic map depicting major streets and the shopping zones on those streets in the downtown area. As the project began to take shape, the GIS Department suggested going in a slightly different direction and using a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file to give the public a way to locate attractions in the village. A KML is a file to be used in conjunction with Google mapping applications such as Google MapsTM and Google EarthTM. For this particular project the village decided that Google MapsTM was the better application over Google EarthTM simply because every internet connection could access the file rather than having to download and install the Google EarthTM software.

Through the years, technology has played an important role in the way we conduct business by increasing productivity, saving time and in the end saving money. Public Works has recently discussed an idea to incorporate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a tool to aide contractors who provide service to turf areas within the village. The reasoning behind this project is evident; every year a Public Works employee has to take approximately three days to show the contractor all areas in town that are required to be sprayed. In order to alleviate the task of driving through the Village to monitor these spraying assignments a map was created to depict all designated locations to be sprayed, thus eliminating the time necessary to escort the contractor from spray site to spray site.