AZSITE Consortium Meeting

Notes

Wednesday, November 16, 1998

ARI, Tempe

Participants: see attached

-- ASU has entered approximately one-third to one-half of the records from the Phoenix. This includes both shape and attribute files.

-- The MNA Argus database has been converted.

-- 15,000 shape files from Coconino NF have been converted.

-- The Prescott NF database is at ASU and needs to be translated.

-- Apache-Sitgreaves survey shape files have been translated. ASM had already entered the attribute data.

-- It may be possible to include some portion of the Tonto NF database but we will have limited goals for TNF.

-- Yuma BLM shape and attribute files are at ASM and will be done by the end of the year.

-- Sierra Vista BLM files are done.

-- Some Havasu and Arizona Strip BLM maps are at ASM to be converted to shape files. There is no attribute data attached. Some (most?) site data are already at ASM.

-- MNA has expressed some concerns about their ability to take on all Havasu and AZ Strip data. ASM will assist with this. Either ASM or the SHPO may take on the Kingman data.

-- The FGDC Benefits grant does not necessarily call for entering all Forest and BLM data as part of the grant. It calls for an assessment of the efficacy of such a process.

-- BLM has supported the FGDC grant as well as provided funding, and a promise of additional funding in 1999. It has been able to do this with the proviso to USBLM that its data will be incorporated into AZSITE by the end of the current fiscal year.

-- The SHPO has hired a GIS technician, Steve Savage, and MNA will have a GIS technician, Andrew Gavin, on staff early in January. Both of these agencies should begin to make inroads into data entry.

-- Training funds are still available and a couple of training sessions will be set up, probably for Kingman and/or Flagstaff and/or Heber.

-- Carol Griffith reports that the State Parks legislative liaison has suggested that tax cuts from the past few years means that the state will be running a deficit this year so a funding request may not be favorably reviewed. Furthermore, it might be more useful to have AZSITE legislated into existence and then seek a line item budget for it. He further thought that ASP, due to problems with Kartchner Cavern, might not be in the best position to ask for funding right now.

-- Both Griffith and Garrison have talked with Rep. Cardamone who has suggested that he might sponsor a piece of legislation that would validate AZSITE under the State Historic Preservation Act and their mandate to create a statewide inventory. Enabling legislation would be more important than funding legislation right now.

-- Mike Barton sketched out the role ASU will play in the consortium and the positions they will need funded to ensure longterm participation. This includes a systems operator to maintain the technical end of the system (one full time line at $40,000-45,000/ year) and an assistant systems operator for recording and site archives (one full time line at $25,000/year). Additionally, the state should cover a small portion of Peter McCartney’s line at 5%. There also needs to be continuing funding for software and hardware upgrades.

Carol Griffith noted that ASP had not yet received the ISTEA contract from ADOT, but that Owen Lindauer had notified her that there might be a stipulation that ASP would not be able to accept. Enhancement funding requires that transportation agencies and the Federal Highway Administration not be charged fees for the use of databases that T21 funding is used to develop. Therefore, the contract that will be sent to ASP will require that ASP pay any fees that ADOT incurs in the use of AZSITE. ASP would find this unacceptable. It was agreed that AZSITE would waive any fees for ADOT for 10 years, as a condition of the Enhancement grant and that ADOT would then be able to remove the stipulation requiring ASP to cover fees from the contract. See Grindell letter to Duarte, 12/3/98, attached.

Ken Rozen noted that item 3 of the temporary license, agreeing not to disclose site location data in public documents, was too broadly written for ASLD to be able to sign. McCartney suggested that, since this is only a temporary license, that Rozen modify it as necessary so that he could continue to accomplish agency business, and then send it along to ASU. McCartney will review all such modifications for suitability before issuing passwords.

In December, McCartney installed a new computer with enough disk space to replicate the master database and hold the filtered database. From a technical standpoint, the system should be open for business in the spring, although data entry will continue. No tribal data will be on the web (filtered) version of the database without written permission from the tribes concerned.

A suggestion for a workshop and/or presentation at the spring and/or summer AAC meetings was made and agreed to. The spring meeting is in Tubac, where a presentation could be made.

McCartney mentioned that he is exploring bibliographic software as an adjunct to AZSITE. It should be something that can coordinate with NADB and that can handle the currently bibliographic databases at SHPO and ASM.

Wednesday, January 13, 1999, 9:30 a.m., at ARI.