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Montana State Library brief: Madison County GIS 'high 90s' and NextGen 911 readiness
Summary
State library staff told commissioners NextGen 911 depends on standardized GIS data and said Madison County’s GIS completeness scored in the high 90s; the county and state are preparing for a Motorola IP‑network contract and continuing quality control work.
Michael Fway and Bob Cochran of the Montana State Library briefed the Madison County Board of Commissioners on Next Generation 911 and the role of standardized GIS data in routing and dispatch.
Fway explained that NextGen 911 replaces legacy landline routing tables with IP‑based systems that rely on address points, road centerlines and administrative boundaries maintained to specific quality standards. He said the state library has supported data assessment since 2017 and received a recurring appropriation to fund a QC tool and staff support for county GIS programs.
Bob Cochran described the state’s work with a cloud‑based QC vendor and the dashboard tools available to county GIS administrators. He reported that Madison County’s PAP (public agency pointset) scored in the high 90s on the state report card and praised county GIS staff for their data maintenance. "Madison County GIS department's credit, they've done a lot of work and it's looking really good," Cochran said.
County GIS staff (identified in the meeting as Jake) remain the local point of contact; Cochran and the state library said they will continue periodic visits and offer technical support. The presenters also noted the statewide NextGen implementation is nearing a contract phase — the 911 advisory board recently indicated a large contract with Motorola to set up the IP network may be signed soon — and that the county should expect increasing technical coordination as implementation advances.
Commissioners expressed appreciation and asked for continued communication; the state library said it would keep Madison County updated and maintain the QC tools and dashboards for ongoing validation.
