Dear Jon,
Thank you for your efforts on this matter and for keep this community
informed.
Is there any reason why the dubious tactics of stripping all money from
MEGIS shouldn't be immediately stayed off through an injunction as the
threat to numerous public services twists in the wind, not to mention
the taint of such an action being unlawful?
Kind regards,
Kelly
On 7/28/2017 12:26 PM, Jon Giles wrote:
>
> As many of you are now aware, the MEGIS budget appears to have been
> zeroed out during the recent budget negotiations. It appears that
> MEGIS was to be funded through a proposal to create a Department of
> Technical Services (DTS) with a corresponding general fund request to
> fund said DTS department. However, when the Department of Technical
> Services creation failed to happen, OIT was asked to reconstitute a
> budget under its current role within the Department of Administrative
> and Financial Services (DAFS). In doing this it would appear that the
> budget for MEGIS was zeroed out at this point. I’m not sure why and
> don’t have an answer for this yet. I hope by engaging with the
> legislative joint standing committees we report to we may get more
> information and can begin to discuss how this can be reversed.
>
> MEGIS and the Maine Library of Geographic Information (GeoLibrary)
> were both create by statute. MEGIS’ primary role is to enable state
> agencies with GIS and in the course of doing so to provide:
>
> ·Maintenance of a public geospatial data portal
>
> ·Coordination of state efforts with federal and local efforts
>
> ·Development and maintenance of geospatial architecture to state
> agencies and public-facing web services
>
> ·Maintenance of base data
>
> ·Development of web-mapping applications for state agencies
>
> The GeoLibrary works with MEGIS to accomplish this and what the
> GeoLibrary was established to do in partnership with public and
> private stakeholders. The GeoLibrary activities extend beyond State
> government to working with other public and private groups and local
> Maine government to extend and promote geospatial efforts statewide to
> the public. The GeoLibrary cannot do its work without MEGIS.
>
> What does this mean? Simply that many of the GIS services, data
> acquisition projects, and data catalog resources we have all come to
> use and rely upon may not be there in the very near future. I urge you
> to contact your friends and peers to let them know about this
> unexpected and dire situation. I also ask those of you who feel
> comfortable and can reach out to your elected officials, to let them
> know what is happening and what it means to you. Inform them by email,
> letter, phone call, or even a quick conversation around town when you
> see them, that MEGIS needs to be funded if we are going to continue to
> make gains in Maine using geospatial data to everyone’s benefit.
>
> Jon Giles, PLS, GISP
>
> Chair, Maine Library of Geographic Information
>
> GIS Coordinator, Sebago Technics, Inc.
>
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--
Untitled Document <http://aerial.panocea.us/>
Mr. V. Kelly Bellis, ME PLS 2099 :: WQTS485
17 Union Street :: Ellsworth, ME 04605
http://aerial.panocea.us :: 1+ (207) 667-6912
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