Louisiana Rep. Hollis Downs,of Ruston,introduced legislation that transforms the Lincoln Parish Geographic Information System Commission into a GIS district. Sounds like semantics,but it’s more than that.
The legislation formalizes the entity meaning it can receive grants and will continue on. The current Commission has a year to year existence. Further,now that it’s a political subdivision,the seven sponsoring agencies are required to fund it.
Even the governor?s office was behind the change;they see the district as a model for other parishes.
The seven agencies share hardware,software and information and after 16 years have invested $2.5 million into the system.