Thetford Considers Digitizing Tax Maps

(Host) More and more municipal governments have moved their business online. And now, many towns are digitizing town records, such as tax maps.

In Thetford, the Select Board is talking about bringing the town's records into a Geographical Information System - or GIS.

Town officials estimate initial costs for getting the program up and running would be nominal, between $5,000 and $8,000.

Tig Tillinghast is chair of Thetford's Select Board. He says the system would make the town's tax maps electronically searchable online.

(Tilinghast) "It allows us to select properties, get information get the lister card, get the tax record and say let's have a layer here that shows all the wetlands in town. And let's say in a future zoning bylaw we have a setback of 100 feet. We can just click a button and it shows what the setbacks are, so our zoning administrator no longer has to visit the site. He can say here's the map of where you can put your house."

(Host) Tillinghast says the Geographical Information System would help the town decide where it wants to develop in the future. About 50 Vermont cities and towns are already using a similar system.