Arkansas GIS director honors Marion County 911 director for mapping work that supported next‑generation 911

Shelby Johnson, director of the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office, presented a letter of appreciation and a plaque to Marion County 911 director Melissa Penn at the court’s April 14 session, recognizing the county’s work to prepare for the state’s next-generation 911 system.

Johnson said Marion County went live on the state system on Feb. 12, 2025, and praised Penn’s efforts to curate a detailed addressing and road-segment database used by the 911 system. He cited Marion County’s dataset as containing 1,281 addresses and 4,946 road segments and said the county’s address table stores 67 columns of information while the road table stores 106 columns for each segment. Johnson said Marion County’s work helped improve public-safety routing and response and thanked Penn and local fire chiefs for collaborating on boundary revisions that the court later adopted.

"Under the leadership of Melissa Penn, Marion County has been one of the state's leading counties to embrace Geographic Information Systems technology," Johnson said. He added that Penn and county staff worked closely with his office and the Arkansas 911 Board over roughly two years to prepare the data and implement the system.

Johnson presented a plaque on behalf of the Arkansas GIS Office, the Arkansas GIS Board and the Arkansas 911 Board and invited a photo with Penn and court members.

The court accepted the presentation and adjourned shortly afterward.

Sources: remarks by Shelby Johnson to the Marion County Court, April 14, 2026.