After being down for the past couple of weeks, Polk County residents can once again access the county’s geographical information system (GIS).

Interim county manager Marche Pittman said on Monday, July 1, the GIS server experienced a hard drive failure that corrupted all data stored on the server and brought the website down.

The county’s GIS department sought the help of Highland Mapping and ESRI to gather and recompile the data and get a new site back online.

The county spent $2,500 for the new site, with Pittman saying the costs were far less than any cost associated with data recovery and restoration to the old server or having to purchase a new server.

The county’s new GIS site can be accessed through www.polknc.org on the home page by clicking the link at the bottom that reads, “Access GIS Here Until the Transition is Complete.”

Pittman said he new site is more user-friendly than the previous GIS with various map views available including street view and topography.

The information users can access regarding parcels within Polk County includes the parcel number, property address, owner name and address, size of the parcel in acres, the deed number and year, land and building values.

“We realize how important this tool is to the citizens of Polk County, so our staff worked hard to get a workable solution in place as quickly as possible,” said Pittman.