
DATE: Thursday, November 20, 1997           TAG: 9711200488

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:   69 lines

DARE COUNTY POSTS BUDDING WEB PAGE NEW INTERNET SITE IS ``LIMITED ONLY BY YOUR IMAGINATION.''

Surfing in Dare County has taken a new - and less daring - dimension with a new Internet Web page.

Created by the county's data processing center, the home page, illustrated with a bright blue breaking wave and the Dare County logo, includes the latest Board of Commissioners agenda and summary, a county phone list, county property inquiry and tax information. It also gives Net surfers the option to link to area weather forecasts and local news.

So far, the water department, emergency management and the parks and recreation departments have created separate home pages at the site. But data processing director, Tommy Gray, said he is strongly encouraging each of the county departments get on the Internet.

``We want them to put everything they've got on the home page,'' Gray said. ``We want budget messages, audit reports, agendas because we want the public to know what's going on in Dare County.

Ready access for the public would make life easier for everyone, Gray said, because there would be less interruption to department staff from people seeking information.

But the new Web page is only a hint of what the public will be able to find on the site in the future, Gray said. Once the department gets the proper interactive software,

Gray said he plans to incorporate a Geographical Information System - a digitalized mapping technique that can locate and detail every piece of property in the county.

``My favorite saying about GIS is you are limited by your imagination,'' Gray said. ``We're just getting started; we're just scratching the surface.''

The technology cost the county about $600,000 when it was purchased about two years ago, Gray said, including the digitalized aerial photographs.

By layering data, maps can illustrate soil, zoning, border and other information about a whole section of the county, or one individual property.

A person would be able to ask the computer to find a piece of land of a certain size, in a certain place, with certain conditions. The GIS system would illustrate the desired information with color maps, and would add a photograph of a property downloaded from the tax department for good measure.

A user could see it first from the air, then zoom in for a closer look. Entire neighborhoods could be viewed with a touch of the mouse.

``If you've ever looked at a map, and want to ask a question to a map, that's what GIS will do for you,'' said Tom Mastrorocco, the county's GIS coordinator.

``The map can link the whole pool of information that lies beneath it.''

Gray said he hopes the GIS Internet capability will be set up within a year.

He said the system is complicated because the digital technology requires a powerful machine with a lot of available storage.

But Gray has big plans. He said he would love to see a kiosk set up at tourist centers.

Then visitors could tell a computer with a GIS program where they're staying and find all the restaurants, beach accesses and shops in the immediate area on a map the system creates. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

WHAT YOU`LL FIND

Address: Dare County's World Wide Web home page can be found at

www.co.dare.nc.us

What's there now: Agenda and summary for the Board of Commissioners,

county phone list, property inquiry and tax information, plus local

weather and news links.

What's in the works: A digitalized mapping system that will enable

Web surfers to locate and detail every piece of property in the

county.