Glynn County details IT and GIS upgrades: website rebuild, court audiovisuals, SeeClickFix, Starlink and drone mapping

Glynn County Chief Information Officer David West and GIS Manager John Centeno outlined a range of information-technology and geographic-information-system projects the county is implementing to support operations, transparency and emergency response.

West said the county's IT department — which he described as 13 employees — is responsible for the county27s network, security and internal services and is working on an IT strategic plan aligned to county priorities. He said a new county website is scheduled for replacement after the fiscal year begins: "after July, we'll be rolling out a new website," West said. He also described an ARPA-funded audiovisual project that upgraded courtrooms across the judicial circuit: "recently, we completed an ARPA grant ... for audio video in 9 courtrooms. And those courtrooms were spread out over 4 counties," West said.

West outlined services intended to increase resident access and operational responsiveness. He described SeeClickFix on the county homepage as an interactive tool that lets residents open work orders with photos and locations. He said the county is preparing for hurricane season (which begins June 1) and has Starlink satellite dishes available as emergency communications backups: "we have a Starlink satellite. It's a couple of Starlinks, actually. And so if we lose all communications, we have to get the satellite dishes up as quickly as possible," West said. West also described the county's emphasis on streaming and public access to meetings: the county has invested in audio-video improvements and streams many county events and meetings.

GIS services: John Centeno described his team as the GIS hub for Glynn County. He said GIS is part of IT and that the GIS team provides mapping, property and parcel records, address coordination for 9-1-1 dispatch, beach elevation surveys, drone imagery and emergency damage assessment. "We're a staff of 7 GIS analysts here at the county," Centeno said; earlier in the interview West described GIS as a unit of "8 people," a discrepancy the speakers did not resolve on-air. Centeno catalogued the county's three drones (DJI Phantom 4, DJI Mavic 2 with thermal capability, and an Inspire 2 used for high-quality imagery), said the department publishes flight video on a Glynn County GIS YouTube channel, and described a semiannual GPS-based survey of St. Simons and Jekyll beaches for sand-elevation monitoring.

Other GIS work cited by Centeno included: parcel and plat management, addressing and new-address assignment, maintenance of stormwater and fire-hydrant asset data, a park access "gap analysis," continuous FEMA Community Rating System (CRS) reporting to support flood-insurance mitigation, hydrant-inspection and preincident planning applications for the fire department, and support for elections redistricting and voter-precinct mapping. He noted the county's open-data portal for addresses and parcel data and said many maps and applications will be embedded in the county's upcoming website hub pages.

Why it matters: West and Centeno said the combined IT/GIS work enhances emergency response, public access to county records and decision-making by county departments. Several projects named have direct operational or fiscal implications, including ARPA-funded courtroom AV upgrades and FEMA CRS reporting that can influence insurance premiums.

Clarifications and open items: West and Centeno provided differing staff counts for the GIS unit (West said 8; Centeno said 7 analysts). West said a web-content position moved to administration and the county is actively replacing the county website and a dedicated website coordinator and webmaster are involved. Neither speaker provided detailed cost breakdowns for the website replacement or the ongoing annual maintenance costs for Starlink or drone operations.