Jacksonville Beach's location next to the Atlantic Ocean and close to historical and entertainment attractions makes tourism an important part of the City's economy. From a tent city for a few hardy souls in 1884, Jacksonville Beach has grown into a solid Business, resort, and residential community.

The City is governed by an independent municipal government but is part of Duval County. Incorporated in 1907, it is the oldest and largest of the three beach communities in Duval County. Jacksonville Beach is primarily a residential community. Bordered by the City of Neptune Beach to the north, Ponte Vedra Beach to the south, the Intra-Coastal Waterway to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the City of Jacksonville Beach occupies 8.06 square miles of land in northeast Florida. The City's commercial district contributes significantly to its economy. Major employers include the United States Navy and Duval County Schools.

Jacksonville Beach, a resort community with a residential population of just over 21,000, is located on a barrier island in northeast Florida. The City provides a full range of services including electric and water utility services to the surrounding communities of Neptune Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, and Palm Valley.

ArcFM for Water and Electric

In December 2000, the City of Jacksonville Beach Municipal Utilities Department embarked on a mission to improve their utilities' operations by modernizing their electric and water facilities design, management, and mapping records using Esri Business Partner Miner and Miner's ArcFM. MESA Solutions in Huntsville, Alabama, also an Esri Business Partner, was selected to provide the GIS implementation and systems integration services to the City for a variety of systems including engineering analysis.

According to Donald Terrell, Jacksonville Beach GIS project manager, "We needed a solution with a high level of flexibility to allow us to introduce new applications and services at our own pace. Our goal with the ArcFM and Esri data management implementation is to establish electric, water, and parcel repositories that can be leveraged by other City departments, such as police, fire, building inspection, and park facilities. MESA Solutions was recommended, and we have not been disappointed in their efforts on our behalf."

Overall project requirement specifications laid out by MESA included the modification of ArcFM software's electric model, storm water data migration from a legacy system to the ArcGIS Water Utilities Data Model (formerly ArcFM Water Data Model), and the development of a field inventory requirements specification. The City is utilizing ArcIMS and ArcSDE to facilitate the installation and configuration of Web-based enterprise level viewing and analysis-enabling multiple city departments to leverage the information managed within the ArcFM system.

Currently, the City has contracted with Osmose, Inc., to perform their field data acquisition. Once the data has been collected and input into the ArcFM environment, MESA will integrate ArcFM with the City's work management system to expedite work order design and processing.

Mark Varenhorst, vice president of MESA Solutions' utility practice says, "We are pleased to be able to recognize the City of Jacksonville Beach's commitment to improving its operations, providing faster response to their customers and strategic services to their community."

For more information, contact Susan Coe, MESA Solutions, Inc. (tel.: 256-864-0400, ext. 3053; e-mail: scoe@mesahq.com; Web: www.mesahq.com) or Roxanne Cox-Drake, Esri electric and gas (tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-2689; e-mail: rcoxdrake@esri.com).