By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — By joining with three other counties on the cost for aerial photos of the counties, Kosciusko County saves more money than if they had it done by themselves.
Assessor Gail Chapman told the county commissioners Tuesday that she received the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) Pictometry agreement for the 2023-24 flight from MACOG Executive Director James Turnwald.
Pictometry specializes in oblique aerial photography taken from low-flying airplanes.
Once the county signs the agreement and gets it back to MACOG, Chapman said, “They will begin our flight for 2023. They will fly all four counties – our county, Marshall, Wabash and Elkhart are all part of this and we share the expense for it.”
Kosciusko County’s total part for the aerial photography is $67,339. That cost is split in half, with half budgeted for 2023 and the other half for 2024.
Commissioner Cary Groninger made the motion to approve the agreement and said, “I know this is something we’ve been working with MACOG for several years on. It’s drastically reduced cost of this GIS (Geographic Image System) flight for the county.” Pooling the counties together for the Pictometry saves money, he said.
“It’s our only tool that we have to accomplish our cyclical reassessment every year, so it’s been a great thing for us,” Chapman stated.
On Wednesday, Chapman said that the county has been with MACOG for a while now so she didn’t have the exact figures on how much the county previously paid for the aerial photos when the county paid for them by itself, but believed it to be about $230,000.
The commissioners unanimously approved the agreement Tuesday.
