By Mark Waite
An airplane flying over the homes of Nye County residents in September may be taking 3-D photos that can be used by anyone from the assessor’s office to sheriff’s department SWAT team.
County commissioners Monday approved an agreement with Pictometry International Corp. that will cost $397,750 out of the county assessor’s technology fund.
“I think it’s going to be great for our county,” Nye County Assessor Shirley Matson said.
The technology — pictometry, oblique imagery and the associated software — is designed to bring efficiency gains to every department in the county, Matson said.
The assessor even bragged about the new technology at her April 18 ethics hearing, when she talked about technological changes coming to her department.
“We’re going to get some really good aerials this year and the fly is in September. These aerials are so good you can actually see at ground level. The appraisers are very rarely going to have to be out in the field,” Matson said.
She told commissioners Monday, “this technology will allow county workers to do more work at their desk as opposed to the field.”
The assessor’s office has to reappraise property every five years, meaning one-fifth of the county is usually reappraised every year. That wll be extra help as the Nye County assessor’s office is short staffed this year.
The technology integrates with Geographic Information System GIS technology at Nye County, the technology at the assessor’s office and 911 centers, bringing a much more visual component to the mapping, Matson said. She said over a third of all counties in the U.S. and 14 of the 17 Nevada counties have the technology.
Erin Ford, president of Pictometry International Corp., said the overflight will greatly improve on existing aerials.
“When you’re looking straight down at it you don’t really know, when a SWAT team is making a pre-plan on a house,” Ford said. “It takes away the guess.”
“What Pictometry brings is, from an angle, so now you can start making decisions,” he said.
County officials won’t have to guess how tall a building is, or where the entry points are, Ford said.
The technology will be an open license that can be used by various Nye County departments, he said.
The overflight sector will include the populated areas, not the vast, empty desert, Ford said. The overflights call for Pahrump, Amargosa Valley, Beatty, Scotty’s Junction, Tonopah, Hadley and Big Smoky Valley, Gabbs, Currant Creek, Duckwater and Sunnyside to be photographed.
Commissioner Lorinda Wichman jokingly asked if they could pick out ore bodies from the air. Commissioner Joni Eastley inquired about whether the Nevada Test Site would be photographed, Commissioner Dan Schinhofen joked he’d like to see pictures from Area 51.
A first overflight this year will cost $262,261, which will be paid over three years. A second flight is planned in 2015 and a third in 2018, subject to funding.
The company website states resolutions are as high as a three-inch ground sample distance. The images can be layered on top of GIS information. The product provides greater detail with higher resolution and 360 degree views, the company states.
Pictometry International suggests it as a tool for contractors or insurance adjustors trying to assess the damage from catastrophic events simply by viewing the high resolution images with results, tables and drawings that include actual dimensions. The images are said to accurately measure area, distance, height, elevation, pitch and bearing of buildings.
The Rochester, New York-based company has more than 145 million images captured in 148 countries.
In a related matter, commissioners approved a $14,166 contract with The Sidwell Company, to be paid for out of the county assessor’s technology fund, to design a GIS web site incorporating the map navigation system. Nye County can use a pictometry viewer to access the collection of oblique photography. The viewer can pan around the images.
The GIS upgrade will include imagery for topographic views, property parcels, voting districts and contour layers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Invasion of privacy. Good way for the law enforcement to get a free peak. Perverts..
First of all I agree with Jason, this is an invasion of privacy. Just because it appears to be a “great” idea doesn’t mean that someone won’t use it perversely. Secondly, this is the wrong time to be spending this amount of money especially since the assessor’s office is currently understaffed. The use of this new technology will certainly entail the cost of hiring new personnel to interpret it, or at the very least the cost of training the current personnel to do the same, won’t it? If so then the initial cost of the technology is incorrect and guess who these costs are passed on to? Yep, us, the taxpayers, that’s a no-brainer. Too bad the county continues to think the taxpayers have no brains.
NRS 250.085 requires the board of county commissioners of every county to establish, by ordinance, an account for the acquisiting and improvement of technology in the office of the county assessor. It is against the law to use these funds to hire or retain employees, or to replace or supplant money from other sources to purchase this technology. What Mrs. Matson is doing is perfectly legal and as is stated in the article above, will benefit many other departments.
Joni Eastly, what do you have to say about the privacy invasion? Nothing?
No, Joni is quiet
Jason, I’ve learned over the years that in some situations no matter what I say it will be considered wrong. You are certainly entitled to your opinion on this, and I am entitled to mine. Let’s keep it that way.
“….photos that can be used by anyone from the assessor’s office to sheriff’s department SWAT team.”
…Lets make sure the citizens of Nye County get use of these photos as well – we ARE the ones paying for them! Too many times our tax dollars are spent on foolish “big boy toys” to help save public salaries by “keeping them at their desk”. I believe they should “get off their derrieres” a bit more! It helps in finding out what is going on in the streets. Nothing worse than an elitist public employee deciding our fate while having no idea how we peasants live.
This is no more an invasion of privacy than Google Earth. Also, the county has used aerial photos for many years for the Assessor’s office, Sheriff’s office, Planning and Public Works. They currently have photos from flights in 2005, 2007 and 2010. Looking at the older photos overlayed on the parcels shows just how a property was developed over the years. It’s also useful for the Flood Plain Manager to see the topography and water flows throughout the valley.
The photos will be taken on an overfly straight down and to the left and right in a grid pattern. You can see similar photos of many areas on Bing, Birdseye view.
But Google Earth and Bing are being done by private-sector companies for public use as opposed to a governmental agency doing it for their own purposes without letting the public access the same images and information. I can understand the argument that this is invasion of privacy or at least a case of “big brother watching — governmental surveillance,” And the irony is that we are all be paying for it.
Why is the assessor’s office not using Google Earth, then? …and not spending huge amounts of our money on a new set of images?
And yes, I realize that the assessor’s office already uses aerial images which I have seen and appear to be quite good. Why do they need to spend our money on more?
The assessor doesn’t use Google earth because it isn’t up to date. And the aerials will save money in the long run because it will not require people to go out to each property to update the assessment. Every municipality of any size has aerials of their town for a myriad of uses. There is no expectation of privacy for aerial photographs, subsequently this is not an invasion of privacy. Check with any lawyer (a real one not one of the pseudo-lawyers in Pahrump).
Also, the public will have access to this. Just stop in the Planning Office and ask for an aerial of your property. Now, the ones they use now are a couple of years old and will not show the current condition of the property. But, they will print out a snap of your property and your neighborhood for the asking. No charge. When the new aerials are uploaded, those will be available as well.
*sigh* …you’re right. Whether the assessor’s office scrutinizes my property from the air or in person, it shouldn’t really matter. I guess I’m just upset at all the surveillance nowadays. I’m an older than most and I was just commenting to a friend the other day that decades ago before the onslaught of all the cameras hidden all over the place now, that you didn’t always feel that you’re being watched. Now, whether it’s going into a business, coming out of a business, inside a business, in a parking lot, at a friend’s house, etc., etc., we’re being watched. I know I’m wrong to feel this way. This story was just one more aggravation. I just got to get with the times. I have to force myself to trust that my tax dollars are being handled well by Shirley Matson.
Yup, more spying on the public. Spending HUGE sums of money for wiz bang toys in a recession, and the only one to benefit, as usual, if the government. We will see nothing beneficial from this but a loss of privacy.
One thing you can bet on is the citizens will NEVER see these photos, they will be deemed “Too sensitive” for our eyes, but the prying eyes of big brother never sleep and have an endless array of “rights.”
You can bet that if you have a beef with anyone in government, they will now know every last inch of your home, your possessions, vehicle, and other assorted privileged information.
Good, it is about time they can accurately rate that those in the single wides need to pay more tax money once the property is properly surveyed. All for it also if it does help SWAT as those in trailers have a higher rate of criminal avtivity and it might save lives in the long run.
Google Earth shows October of 2011 photos for Pahrump, which isn’t too bad of an age. I didn’t check the other towns mentioned in the article.
For those who oppose the idea of aerial photography, maybe use your energy to design an image of a hand pointing upwards with a middle finger.
I think I will stick to a “peace” sign myself.
You think aerial photography is bad, look at some of the other photography and imaging tools available. Lastly, remember that visible light (photography) only represents a small portion of the light spectrum.