McLeod County GIS team wins statewide awards for mapping tools and assessment solutions

McLeod County’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) staff received statewide recognition for multiple projects that county officials said will be made available to other counties.

County staff announced that Christy Christiansen, McLeod County GIS manager, received the Polaris Leadership Award from the Minnesota Land Information Systems (MN LIS) Consortium. The county also received two awards from the Minnesota Counties GIS Association for (1) a Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) technical-assistance application solution developed in partnership with McLeod County SWCD and GIS departments in Sibley and Renville counties, and (2) a crop-productivity-index solution developed by GIS specialist Joel Crawford and GIS intern Tim Ryder that helps county assessors use soil survey data to determine soil qualities.

County staff said the SWCD application streamlines field inspections and reporting and will be made available to other SWCD offices across the state as an open-source solution. Staff said the GIS solutions are intended to reduce costs for taxpayers by sharing tools among counties.

GIS staff accepted the awards at the board meeting and commissioners praised the department’s responsiveness and utility to other county offices. Joel Crawford and intern Tim Ryder were named on the crop-productivity-index award along with Ryan Freytag and Colton Draeger from partner organizations, who were not present at the meeting.

Commissioners offered congratulations and posed no requested follow-up action other than a planned photo opportunity with award recipients.