Title
Historic Preservation Data Management Project Update
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Discussion on the data management and digitizing work completed through a Thurston County Heritage Grant award.
Staff Contact:
Brittany Gillia, Historic Preservation Officer, Community Planning and Economic Development Department, 360.753.8427
Presenter(s):
Drew Hodges, GIS Specialist
Background and Analysis:
In January 2024, Thurston County awarded the City a grant of $7,500.00 to fund a historic preservation intern, with an in-kind matching amount of City staff time valued at $7,500.00. Due to various factors, the grant was unable to be executed in 2024.
Staff was granted an agreement modification from Thurston County to extend the scope of work to include six (6) additional months to execute the grant, and to modify the scope to include funding additional hours to existing part-time staff for dedicated hours toward the data management project.
The goal of the grant was to digitize the OHR records and to collect them in one place, so that they could be accessed easily by staff and the public. The end goal is to update the information hosted online to be more user-friendly, as well as to create and host more data through GIS, including but not limited to digital story maps and walking tours.
Climate Analysis:
Transitioning the City's Historic Preservation files to a digital file storage system will encourage the reduction of paper use, decrease the need for storage and physical transportation of the files and reduce vehicular trips by the public who would otherwise travel to City Hall to view the files.
Equity Analysis:
The Historic Preservation data management work will remove barriers to accessing information related to the Olympia Heritage Register. The current archive of historic records are largely paper files and the goal will be to digitize them and provide new, user friendly ways to display the data to increase the...
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