Congratulations to Paul Stephenson and Matt Junker of Cloudpoint Geographics for receiving their ArcGIS Desktop Associate 10.5 certification. This certificate is obtained by completing one of Esri's technical examinations which tests candidates experience applying ArcGIS concepts and processes to workflows. Candidates must have two or more years of experience to be eligible for the award. Paul and Matt have both displayed their proficient abilities in utilizing GIS software in the past and now have carved another 'notch in the belt' of their professional GIS career. Well done Paul & Matt.
Educating folks about SignOps at the WCHA Summer Road School!
Earlier this week, Joe made a trip to the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI for the Wisconsin County Highway Association Summer Road School. The association hosts two road schools a year, one in the Summer and one in the Winter. These events allow County Highway Commissioners and County Highway Board Supervisors to get together to learn what issues are facing the state of Wisconsin, as well as learn about new solutions to existing issues.
Joe was able to meet with several new professionals and reconnect with a few existing clients. Cloudpoint was discussing the SignOps sign inventory system and how it can benefit the counties of Wisconsin. Want to learn more about how SignOps can take your sign inventory to the next level? Please don't hesitate to contact us at 877-377-8124 or visit www.cloudpointgeo.com/signops
Here are some rock formations of the Upper Dells of the Wisconsin River. The association scheduled both a golf outing and a boat tour for attendees. The boat tour was great and took place on a 109 year old 80+ foot vessel.
We can't wait to see everyone again in the Dells for this Winter Road School in January!
A great week of APWA Conferences in Illinois and Wisconsin!
Jonathan and Joe have been traveling like it's the holidays lately. What's been keeping them busy is a combination of field work in Macon County, IL for a SignOps implementation and various parcel fabric projects. But here at Cloudpoint we love to get out and meet different GIS users and talk about solutions for problems and projects that they are undertaking. Over the past 8 days, Cloudpoint has traveled over 450 miles and been to two different American Public Works Association (APWA) conferences. Last week was the Illinois Chapter show in Peoria, IL and yesterday was the Wisconsin Chapter show in Madison, WI. Jonathan presented a talk about the use of UAV drones for mapping and how it can benefit local public works departments. These conferences make for longer days, but we wouldn't miss them! You can see a gallery of pictures below, including one of our hard hat winners from the Wisconsin show!
Want to learn more about Cloudpoint's various geospatial solutions and how they can take your GIS to the next level? Feel free to contact us at 877-377-8124 or visit www.cloudpointgeo.com for more information.
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We're playing in Peoria: Cloudpoint partnering on a Pavement Rating Project for the City of Peoria, IL
Cloudpoint is excited to announce that we have partnered with DTS and Farnsworth Group for a pavement rating project for the City of Peoria! This project is quite extensive and entails driving every mile of City maintained roadways in a van equipped with laser scanning that collects and inventories every minute detail of the road. Once all the data is collected, the City will have a highly detailed record and rating for all of their roads. This data will be used for planning purposes which will allow them to budget and schedule upkeep and repairs for many years to come!
Here you see DTS's mobile asset collection van equipped with highly sensitive laser scanning equipment. This van will be the main data collection tool for the City of Peoria project.
Growing the Fleet: Cloudpoint's slick new ride
Here you see three Cloudpoint branded vehicles of our fleet in the parking lot of our Roanoke, IL headquarters.
With the number of field work projects increasing, and being well past the 200,000 mile mark on the current Honda Odyssey work van (Also known as Homer - get it? Because Homer wrote the Odyssey) we realized that we were going to be in the market for a new work vehicle. Well the stars aligned and the clouds parted, revealing a gorgeous "Cloudpoint blue" Dodge Caravan that was meant to be ours! Since expanding our fleet we are able to get field work done faster with two crews, and it allows us to travel with larger numbers in style. Be sure to snap a picture of the Cloudpoint vehicles and share it with us on our Facebook page, Twitter account, or Instagram feed. We've grown fond of using minivans for work vehicles. With the ability to stow seats and utilize extra space for tools such as GPS units, shovels, probes, and more, we are dangerously close to optimizing our storage/occupancy ratio. This new work van is a great sign that we are growing and ready to take on more projects to assist our clients with their geospatial needs. Finally, you may think it's just a minivan, but to us it's a mega-van!
Cloudpoint Aerial Maps Cog Hill Golf Course
Cloudpoint Geographics is excited to announce another UAV drone mapping project that is in the works. We will be collecting data at Cog Hill Golf Course in Lemont, IL. Some of you golfers out there are familiar with Cog Hill, but for you other folks, Cog Hill is comprised of 4 separate courses and has hosted numerous Professional Golf Association events including 16 Western Opens and 4 BMW Championships. We will be collecting ground control points and high resolution imagery that allows us to create 3D mapping for various applications. This is the 2nd golf course that we have flown and we're pretty certain it won't be the last! It's a good thing we're mapping the golf course, because that's what we do. If we were golfing at Cog Hill, there'd be several lost balls and more than a few announcements of "FORE!"
Creating a Superior parcel layer in Ashland County
Ashland County, WI has a beautiful setting along the southern shore of Lake Superior and is host to numerous northwoods activities. The County recently decided to upgrade its cadastral GIS layers to take advantage of Esri's newest tools including the parcel fabric. To accomplish this they choose Cloudpoint Geographics to provide professional services involving migrating their data into the parcel fabric within the ArcGIS environment. In addition, Cloudpoint will help the County clean and submit their parcel layer, among others, to Wisconsin's State Cartographer's Office (SCO) as part of Version 3 of the Parcel Database initiative project resulting from Act 20. This work will involve refining parcel data for updated right-of-way information, and linking subdivision plans and survey plats. The County also has a well-established set of GPS control points that will be utilized as part of the project as well. They continue to refine their PLSS monument network and look forward to providing a high-quality GIS system for its internal departments as well as local businesses and constituents. Cloudpoint's professional staff will provide onsite training on the parcel fabric workflows and hands-on assistance with planning future GIS layer creation and development. We are very excited to assist Ashland County in achieving the goals they have established!
Customer Spotlight - Tim Isley, Streets and Cemetery Superintendent, Rochelle, IL
Tim has been with the City of Rochelle Street Department for 14 years. He started out as an operator in 2003 and in 2013 he became the Streets and Cemetery Superintendent.
As Superintendent, Tim’s responsibilities include: maintenance and repair of all city streets, alleys, sidewalks, and parking lots; inspection, repair, and replacement of the city storm water system; maintaining all traffic control devices to MUTCD standards; managing the city forestry program; snow and ice control; and managing the city owned cemetery.
A typical day for Tim at the street department starts out with using GIS. Staff will grab an iPad and hit the streets to complete Julie locates to protect the storm water system. The entire storm water system including sizes, materials, and depths have been entered into GIS and by doing so, have made this daily activity much more efficient. They also use GIS to help manage the traffic sign operation. Every traffic sign on the shelf and in use in the field has been, or is in the process of being, barcoded and entered into the SignOps system to manage the City's sign inventory, ensure all signs are up to date, and MUTCD compliant. Another area they have just brought GIS into is the forestry program. Toward the end of last year, Tim and his staff started using GIS to map out and inventory all city parkway and other city owned trees. They are tracking tree location, species, size, condition, and potential hazards, just to name a name a few.
"GIS has become a vital part of our operation and because of all the benefits it provides, I see it growing into many different areas. We started using GIS about 4 years ago and now we use it on daily basis to help manage our storm water system, traffic sign operation, and forestry program. Because of the accuracy and efficiency gained in these three areas we have decided in 2017 to expand the use of GIS into our cemetery operations as well."
Thanks for the kind words Tim and thanks for allowing Cloudpoint to assist the City of Rochelle in reaching its goals!
Get your motor running! Cloudpoint Aerial Services hired to complete a UAV Drone Mapping Project for a new drag strip!
Cloudpoint Geographics is excited to assist Track Planning Associates complete their goal of "building motorsports for the future!"
Cloudpoint is excited to announce that we have been hired by Track Planning Associates to complete a drone mapping flight for a proposed drag strip outside of Eau Claire, WI. This project is being done to gather survey data about the land surrounding an existing drag strip. When completed, the updated facility will have seating for 4,000 people and be home to several regional and national events! We are thrilled to be a part of this process and we can't wait to see the final project and hear the roar of those awesome machines tearing down the track!
What a Great Time at Watercon 2017!
Jon ready to welcome everyone to the Cloudpoint booth at Watercon 2017!
Cloudpoint Geographics had a great time at the 2017 Watercon Conference! We met with several existing clients and made some great new acquaintances. It was wonderful to get to talk with so many people about what they were undertaking to improve their water systems.
Cloudpoint's own Joe Christian gave a presentation about why it's important to update your existing maps with GIS and how that process can be implemented. Joe, as always, was eager to talk about GIS and spread word about the importance of precision mapping, utilizing improved tools, and documenting the wealth of data that long time employees have built up over decades.
If you have any questions regarding the various water utility projects that we have undertaken, whether it be overhauling distribution network maps, conducting field inventories for culverts, or utilizing our drone mapping services to create topographic data, please don't hesitate to contact us at 877-377-8124 or online at www.cloudpointgeo.com, and we'll be happy to help!
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Here you see a 4" diameter wooden water main from Green Bay, WI that was part of a water utility hisory exhibit at Watercon.
As always the food was terrific! Here is an example from the amazing mac and cheese bar where you could choose between chicken, bacon, broccoli, green onions, tomatoes, gouda and cheddar cheese sauce! It was definitely worth the wait!