County officials announced that Lake County’s geographic information systems (GIS) team won three awards at the Ohio GIS engineers conference in Columbus earlier this week.

The recognition included: Lake County land-use mapping led by GIS director Caroline Peterson (award for small-format cartography, project described as land-use classification and a commissioner presentation map); a personal educational mapping project by Ryan Barshek inspired by tabletop role-playing themes (noted for educational outreach); and a People's Choice award for an interactive Western Reserve story map by Dave Farris that traces Northeast Ohio history from 1795 to the present.

County officials said the awards highlight local staff expertise and recommended inviting Dave Farris to an upcoming America 250 planning meeting to present the Western Reserve story map. Commissioners congratulated the GIS team on winning three of the conference categories and described it as statewide recognition of county staff work.

No formal board action was associated with the announcement.