CLARK CO. OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE NAZCA PARTNERSHIP
Saturday, March 18th, 2006 -- 8:54 AM
Technology, at its worst, can cause major headaches and confusion. Technology at its best can lead to efficiency and ? hopefully ? cost-savings. Clark County officials Friday unveiled a piece of new technology they hope will accomplish the latter.
Clark is the first county in the state to sign on with Nazca Property Management. The company has patented a way to offer land information data from multiple county departments through one portal, which users can access on the internet.
At a press conference, department heads explained there is a steady flow of bankers, surveyors, realtors and others who visit the Register of Deeds?, Treasurers? and Land Information offices. These departments are required by statute to offer the information, but in-person requests tie up staff and force business people to travel to the courthouse or call and request faxes.
In simple terms, the program pulls pertinent tax, assessment, surveyor and other property information from Clark County?s existing databases and provides an interface ? a ?one-stop shop? ? for the user to access that information, officials said Friday.
Clark County Register of Deeds Lois Hagedorn says it should cut down on her office?s workload.
?On a daily basis, it?s not unusual for us to have anywhere from five to ten people coming in accessing our recorded documents, tax information and then going to (the) Zoning (Department) to get a permit,? Hagedorn says. ?We also receive many phone calls requiring documents to be faxed. We hope to see that cut down significantly.?
Seeing the program uses a patented ?spider? feature, which automatically searches for new information, Clark County employees will have no additional data entry.
The County paid Nazca $8,000 to get involved and is likely to enter into a six-year contract with the private company. But thanks to $25 monthly subscription fees and individual shared transaction fees, County officials hope to make as much as $85,000 a year from users.
In correlation with the new service?s launch, the county has begun charging a fee for the fully-functional GIS mapping program offered through their website. A scaled-back free version of the program remains available. For more information, you can log on to the county?s Planning, Zoning and Land Information office?s website:
On The Web: [url=http://www.co.clark.wi.us/ClarkCounty/departments/planningzoning/]Clark County Planning, Zoning and Solid Waste[/url]
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