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Land information officer Jeff Hartman details mapping upgrades, succession plan and new municipal address assignment
Summary
Jeff Hartman, Portage County land information officer, told the Land Records and Modernization Committee the office completed geolocating thousands of archived permits, migrated parcel data to ArcGIS Pro, and will assume address assignment for the town of New Hope; he also announced his planned July 1 departure and outlined succession steps.
Jeff Hartman, Portage County land information officer, told the Land Records and Modernization Committee on Jan. 16 that staff have geolocated and attached thousands of archived permits to active parcels and have migrated county parcel data from an ArcMap Parcel Fabric to the ArcGIS Pro Parcel Fabric ahead of vendor deprecation.
"We managed to link those to an active parcel as best we could," Hartman said, describing the work of reconciling 1960s and 1970s permit records that sometimes included wrong quarter sections or misspelled names.
The migration to ArcGIS Pro reflects a vendor decision to deprecate ArcMap, Hartman said, and he described the change as significant but completed with only brief downtime. He said daily consistent usage of the county web mapping service is in the hundreds, with thousands of unique users each week, including realtors and pipeline companies who rely on the resource.
Hartman said the department updated addressing procedures so that municipalities can pass address‑assignment duties to the county by town resolution. "The town of New Hope did do that back in January, so now I am the address signer for the town of New Hope," he said, and noted the county receives address data from villages and the city of Stevens Point to support 9‑1‑1 consistency.
Hartman also announced he tendered his resignation effective July 1 and described succession planning efforts: documenting projects and workflows, coordinating coverage for 9‑1‑1 responsibilities, and preparing for recruitment. He advised the committee the Department of Administration will accept routine signatures and reports from an identified secondary point of contact while the position is vacant, but said a long vacancy would require county board action.
On funding, Hartman summarized major budget lines the committee reviewed: a Strategic Initiative grant that can vary between roughly $10,000 and $70,000 depending on statewide program revenue; a base grant of $31,376; and a projected retained‑fees estimate of about $66,000. He said the department plans to apply $27,633 from fund balance and that levy dollars would backfill any remaining shortfalls.
Hartman described typical uses for grant and retained‑fee dollars: consultant services to support web servers and applications during the platform transition, replacement GPS/GNSS equipment, archeological data purchases, and occasional large equipment maintenance or replacement.
The committee did not take additional action on the LIO report beyond discussing delegation and succession steps. Hartman said the department will provide contract documents and vendor details to members who requested them.
The committee expects to schedule next year’s meeting in October or November.
