Person County GIS - ED's Necessary Ally

July 25, 2017

Sallie Vaughn, GISP, Person County GIS Manager

It has been said that Economic Development (ED) is a team sport. On this blog, we have run series about what site selectors look for in assisting new and expanding industries to choose the best locations. There have been posts about key components necessary for economic development, the roles some of our partners and affiliates play in economic development and explanatory pieces laying out the purposes and objectives of the two boards serving together with the ED office to strive for local economic growth.

The goal of this week’s post is to highlight one of the most reached-for tools in the ED toolkit – product from the Person County GIS Department (GIS).

On a day-to-day basis, ED staff is analyzing local building and sites inventory and submitting project requests that come in from near and far. There is not a one-size-fits-all for these requests by a longshot. Some require high power outputs, others are more concerned with acreage for expansion, still others want to know how close a site is to rail access and, of course, most have a combination of variables at play.

Realizing that the best way to provide this information for clarity and impact is through visual display, Person County GIS becomes our right hand.

Led by Sallie Vaughn, GIS Manager, the GIS Department has assisted Person County Economic Development in analyzing over 2,800 acres in Person County to develop an inventory of potential future industrial sites. They have developed maps highlighting infrastructure availability at various sites with quick responses for short-turnaround project requests. GIS has provided aerial imagery utilized for maps, brochures and web use, and they are currently working with us, along with the Person County IT Department, to develop an interactive inventory tool to be housed on this site – a months-long project.

With millions of data points compiled into over 125 layers of geographic information at their disposal, not to mention talent and team-spiritedness, it’s no wonder that Person County GIS would be considered as one of ED’s most valuable local resources.

Thanks, Sallie and team!

For more information about the many ways the Person County GIS Department serves our citizens, visit their website.  

Sherry performs administrative duties related to serving the Economic Development Director as well as the Economic Development Commission and the non-profit arm of Person County Economic Development, PCBIC, Inc. She has served in this role for four years and is a lifelong Person County resident.