{"id":47762,"date":"2018-08-07T10:40:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T17:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&#038;p=47762"},"modified":"2024-04-29T08:06:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T15:06:46","slug":"a-more-informed-view-of-city-business","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/a-more-informed-view-of-city-business","title":{"rendered":"A More Informed View of City Business"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10682,401,24992],"tags":[1451],"arcuser_issues":[24952],"class_list":["post-47762","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri-story-maps-apps","category-government","category-special","tag-citizen-engagement","arcuser_issues-arcuser-summer-2018"],"acf":{"short_description":"Oak Hill, West Virginia, uses an Esri Story Maps app to present the city council agenda in context.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"pdf","file":53442},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"This is the story of how the manager of a small city in West Virginia came up with a big idea: convert the city council agenda from a drab document to a lively account of municipal business using an Esri Story Maps app.\r\n\r\nThe agenda is a tried and true document that guides city council meetings. It lists items up for discussion or vote. Typically written in a bureaucratic style and void of visuals, the agenda is often posted as a PDF on a city government\u2019s website.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s no longer true in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where the city council replaced a static agenda with an animated story map to guide its monthly meetings. Using the Esri Story Map Series app, the city\u2019s lone GIS employee Marvin Davis creates an itemized, interactive agenda describing each item and providing maps, photographs, and links to documents such as reports, legal notices, and correspondence.\r\n\r\nOak Hill is a city of 8,500 people that lies just west of the New River Gorge National River, a 70,000-acre national park. Earlier this year, Esri account manager Daniel Peters showed city manager Bill Hannabass an Esri story map and he immediately thought, \u201cGosh, I could use that for the council presentation. It\u2019s visual.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":51552,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Hannabass used maps to view assets when he served in the US Army. \u201cI lived and died by maps,\u201d as he remembers it. He was naturally drawn to the ability of maps to tell a story visually and tell it quickly. He was also impressed that the cloud-based interactive maps from the city\u2019s ArcGIS Online organization account could be used in story maps. Esri Story Maps apps are currently available at no additional cost to ArcGIS Online account holders like the City of Oak Hill.\r\n\r\nDavis, the GIS coordinator, was given the task of turning the monthly city council agenda into a story map. Davis selected the Story Map Series app with the side accordion layout. Because that layout automatically builds a numbered list of items that run down the left side of the story map, Davis just writes a short header and one line of text that describes each agenda item; adds a related map or a photo; and then creates links to any other images, legal documents, notices, or correspondence.\r\n\r\nOne agenda item Davis worked on for the April city council meeting dealt with structural inspection board recommendations on several buildings around town that needed to be repaired or demolished. Davis mapped the buildings\u2019 locations in the story map and added links to images of those structures and related documents such as demolition orders and bids. \u201cIt makes <i>[the agenda] <\/i>informative,\u201d Davis said. He said the story map format gives those looking at the agenda the geographic context of the issue, and all the information on it is at their fingertips.\r\n\r\nOak Hill City Council members and local media outlets receive story map agendas in a ShareFile packet that Hannabass sends in an email prior to meetings. During the city council meetings, Hannabass also goes through each numbered item on the story map agenda, which is displayed on two screens in City Hall.\r\n\r\nAgenda items often have geographic reference points, so Hannabass said using a story map as an agenda makes it easy for him to answer questions if one comes up. \u201cIf there are four dilapidated structures that I have to tear down and someone asks <i>[about a particular building],<\/i> \u2018What street is that one on?\u2019, I can pull up a map,\u201d Hannabass said.\r\n\r\nBecause photos and legal or other types of documents can be linked in the story map, those are easy to access and view, too, if necessary. No longer does Hannabass need to display the agenda as a Microsoft Word document or PowerPoint presentation. Gone are the PDFs or scanned images of maps. If anyone asks him a question, Hannabass has \u201ca ton of information\u201d to dig into. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a ton of boring PDFs to flip through.\u201d\r\n\r\nHannabass said online story maps are an excellent medium for sharing information to a city council, board of directors, or other group\u2014public or private. People are often overwhelmed by reams of paper they receive before a meeting. \u201cOur council packets were three to five inches thick,\u201d Hannabass said. \u201cIt is crazy to have that much paperwork.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe put an end to paper-based agendas in Oak Hill some time ago. According to Davis, Hannabass has been a strong advocate for a municipal GIS. He brought Davis on board as GIS coordinator and recently helped negotiate an enterprise license agreement between the city and Esri.\r\n\r\nThat agreement, scheduled to begin in July 2018, will increase the number of city employees with access to GIS and beef up capabilities to do analysis. \u201cHannabass has been my biggest champion here,\u201d Davis said.\r\n\r\nThe city also plans to share the city council story map agendas online with the public soon, making it easier for Oak Hill residents to stay informed about what\u2019s happening in their community. Right now, city council members and the media can study the city council agenda plus all the related documents in one online app before meetings begin.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat is transparency that is beyond what is typical,\u201d Hannabass said. \u201cIt <i>[will]<\/i><i> <\/i>be more transparent on the website.\u201d\r\n\r\nDavis said that there\u2019s often a geographic component to city business, which is why sharing information via a story map agenda makes perfect sense. If viewers want to take a closer look, for example, at zoning designations or a proposed new one-way street on a story map, they can just pan around and zoom in on the geographic locations. A PDF or a scanned image of a map restricts their view."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":51562,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cI am biased,\u201d said Davis, referring to his interest in geography and his job in GIS. \u201cBut I think <i>[the story map agenda]<\/i> offers a more informed view. You are able to look at pertinent documentation and a map.\u201d\r\n\r\nSince Esri released the first Esri Story Maps app in 2014, people around the world have built more than 600,000 story maps. Oak Hill\u2019s story map designed specifically for city council agendas seems to be a first. The city\u2019s adoption of the Story Map Series app to produce the agendas impressed Allen Carroll, who leads the Esri Story Maps team and is program manager of storytelling.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re always thrilled to see fresh and unexpected new uses of Esri Story Maps,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cOak Hill\u2019s use of our Story Map Series app to present its council agenda is a delightful example of the versatility and power of map-based storytelling.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A More Informed View of City Business | Summer 2018 | ArcUser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oak Hill, West Virginia, uses an Esri Story Maps app to present the city council agenda in context.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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