ANNISTON STAR
Mapping the path ahead
                By Amy Sieckmann, Staff Writer
                 04-26-2002

    Pete Conroy is literally trying to create a road map for Alabama's environmental and economical future.
    Conroy chairs the Alabama Commission on Environmental initiatives and directs the Jacksonville State University's Environmental Policy and     Information Center and Field Schools. This week, he took on a new assignment when Gov. Don Siegelman appointed him chairman of the state's     newly established Alabama Geographic Information Council.
    Conroy's goal is to collect and connect maps from almost every state agency, turn them into a single database, and make them all Internet accessible.
    For local residents, such a system would give them the ability to name a few key resources or features they are looking for, and all the possible locations that meet the entered criteria would come up on the computer, Conroy said.
    "So if you own a factory and want lots of water and gas lines, you would just pop in all those coordinates and the system would give you a location where all those things are," he said. "Or say you want to move to Alabama and, for you, hiking trails, job opportunities and good schools are important. Theoretically, you could log on, put that in and see the locations and their proximity to all those things you care about."
    While Conroy is not sure how long it will take to get such a system up and running, he said he is optimistic it will happen eventually, even if it starts out in bits and pieces.
    The council's first meeting will be May 1 in Montgomery. About 30 people representing different environmental groups and state agencies were selected by the governor to participate.
    Once it gets started, Alabama will be the 31st state to develop some kind of statewide council to coordinate between economic and environmental    agencies, Conroy said.
    By sharing informational maps such as roads, streams, elevation, political boundaries, parcel ownership, homeland security, endangered species,
population density and more, Conroy said he would like to help plan better economic development and smart growth while at the same time preserving the environment.
    "This is so important to the state of Alabama from an environmental and economical point of view," he said. "Unless you have a road map, it's kind of hard to plan for the future."
    For Conroy and others on the council, this could be that road map.
    "Virtually any state agency you talk to is starting to realize the importance of analyzing locations with a spatial aspect to see where the needs are," said Tom Littlepage, deputy division director of the Alabama Office of Water Resources. "Using these maps, they can ask, 'Is congestion a problem here or is water quality a problem here,' and that goes down to public services like fire protection and security and to where growth is occurring in every city."
    Maps like that would benefit residents as well, by saving tax dollars, Littlepage said. It would mean less duplication of efforts for state agencies, and developers could see locations that are in flood plains or other potentially dangerous areas and then build elsewhere.
    One foreseeable pothole in the council's path, however, is a lack of state funding.
    The council was created by executive order in March, but no funding has been allocated for the program.
    The saving grace, Conroy said, is that some state agencies have budgeted some money for mapping. He does not know how many agencies have done that or how much money they have budgeted..
    One option Conroy is looking at is the $351 million President Bush promised in this year's budget for state mapping projects.
    "If Alabama has a coordinated effort, the opportunity for us to receive that funding will be increased," he said.
    This week, Conroy was in Washington, D.C., speaking to the national governor's association and the legislative delegation, where he mentioned the new project.
    Conroy said he was selected as chairman partly because of such connections. He also was an advocate of creating the council.