Monroe County accepts $29,930 GIS grant to update datasets for next‑gen 911 standards

Monroe County commissioners on Oct. 2 approved acceptance of a $29,930 grant from the Indiana Geographic Information Office’s SEAS (Sewing Enriched and Enhanced Datasets) program to strengthen the county’s core GIS datasets and align them with next‑generation 911 standards.

County staff and Dr. John Baton, who led the grant initiative, said the funding will be used to enhance data, improve performance and security, and that the county plans to contract with Cultivate Geospatial Solutions, a firm the county has worked with previously, to perform the work. Staff said the contract template produced by the state contained a clause that raised legal concerns (a warranty-like clause about the county’s litigation posture); legal review has flagged that as a caveat that the county will need to address when the state issues the final contract after grant acceptance. Commissioners approved acceptance so the county can proceed to the contract stage and sign once state paperwork and any necessary contract revisions are resolved.

Commissioners praised the grant as supporting resident safety and improving county data infrastructure. No public comment on the item was recorded at the meeting.

Staff said the county had already run the grant through legal review and that acceptance will trigger the state’s contract process and signature routing once they ‘‘hit accept’’ on the award.