McKean County will soon charge more for digital photographs of
real estate, according to an ordinance establishing a set fee for
counties across the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning
and Development Commission’s region.
Officials said the hike will change the fee from $5 per megabite
to $25 per tile or grid, which are essentially Geographic
Information System (GIS) snapshots of property located with the
county and cover 2,296 acres of land. The data is maintained
through North Central as part of a professional contract with the
non-profit agency.
According to Chief Assessor Angie Tennies, the fee – which could
potentially bring more money into the county – will principally
effect those looking at large sections of real estate, including
businesses, industry or oil and timber companies.
“It’s really geared toward people who want to do a huge search
of landowners,” Tennies said. “People will be able to get an idea
of where the properties are, including the right-of-ways.
“Basically, it’s just a change of rate to bring the county into
line and uniform with other counties involved in North
Central.”
The ordinance is slated to be discussed during the next
commissioners meeting Feb. 28 in Smethport.
Tennies said North Central provides the photographs to the
public upon request under certain procedures and rates established
by the individual counties that are signatories of the contract. In
McKean County, the requests are administered by the assessment
office.
“Anybody can come into our office if they just want a printout
of what or where their properties are,” Tennies said, noting a
computer terminal with GIS capabilities is available at the
assessment office.
According to Tennies, an individual must have the appropriate
software to view the images, however, or the data is useless. That
software is usually used by companies or industries.
Tennies said the county brought the GIS mapping system online a
few years ago and provided all the information through a digital
format through North Central, which is the vendor for the
county.
A county resident would simply contact the assessment office and
indicate they wanted to view the entire county in digital format. A
CD would eventually be made and the individual paid a price for the
copy.
Then in either 2000 or 2001, Tennies said a discussion arose
over exactly how much to charge for the copy through North Central,
during which it was determined that $5 a megabite would be
charged.
Tennies said the original data contained photos from a flyover
of the county in 1994, and included an acreage amount, site
description of a structure, provided ownership information for the
property and a layout of the road the property sat on.
“We made up what was referred to as a McKean County GIS request
form,” Tennies said, “that a person would submit back to
assessment. They would also be required to sign a licensing
agreement, which indicated that one copy (of the map) would be
available for a backup and that the information couldn’t be
sold.”
Officials said the standard conversion-processing fee stands at
$25 per half-hour with a half-hour minimum, with the rate for the
data on CDROM at $5.
“The person would bill North Central directly,” Tennies said,
“which the county would receive back.”
Later, Tennies said the counties comprising the North Central
board indicated the payments needed to be uniform, eventually
arriving at the $25 per tile fee.
According to Tennies, a map of McKean County consists of 303
tiles, with a total charge of $7,575.
Broken down to individual municipalities, a complete map of
Annin Township would cost $475; Bradford Township, $625; Ceres
Township, $500; Corydon Township, $600; Eldred Borough, $50; Eldred
Township, $475; Foster Township, $625; Hamilton Township, $750;
Hamlin Township, $700; Kane Borough, $75; Keating Township, $950;
Lafayette Township, $750; Lewis Run Borough, $100; Liberty
Township, $950; Mount Jewett Borough, $150; Norwich Township,
$1,175; Otto Township, $375; Port Allegany Borough, $50; Sergeant
Township, $900; Smethport Borough, $100; Wetmore Township, $800;
and the City of Bradford, $175.
