Lapeer
County Government On-LineLapeer
County Government On-LineA young woman who had a child out of wedlock wants to add the father's name to the birth certificate. Where does she go? What forms are required? Where are they filed? An individual wants to register a trademark. Is there a place closer than Washington DC. to access registration information? Two Michiganders who live in Mackinac County want to get married in Lapeer...can they do that? Where can an individual go to take a GED examination if she doesn't want to go to the high school? A lady has what appears to be an injured deer in her yard, who can she call?
These are examples of recurring questions asked at the Lapeer County Clerk's Office. Questions of similar vein are asked throughout Lapeer County departments, agencies and commissions on a continuing basis. The Lapeer County Government On-Line Project will assist Lapeer County Governmental units in evaluating, organizing and making accessible valuable local information relevant to individual's daily life experiences.
Spearheaded by Lapeer County Library, the residents of Lapeer County as well as citizens from Michigan, the national and around the world will have immediate access to hundreds of pieces of local government information. Information that can improve their quality of life. Presently that information is accessible either in person or through telephone communications and only available during office hours. Data bases containing vital statistics, demographic records, regulations and ordinances are not available for public access. Retrieval of requested information is often time consuming and redundant.
Lapeer County departments, agencies and commissions have an abundance of diversified public information ranging from animal regulations to toxic waste procedures. Making this information accessible to the public in a timely manner through a centralized electronic distribution point is vital to the needs of the Lapeer County residents and a valuable resource for others. Lapeer County Library recognizes that the flow of information in a community is a flow of wealth. We are committed to increasing entry to local information by making it more accessible in today's electronic world. Local information is often that commodity that money can't buy. It's a buried treasure that has no accompanying map. Lapeer County Library will provide that map.
Driven by a tradition of collaboratory necessity, the basic "social structuring" so necessary to successful community networking has a long and proven history in Lapeer County. We are continuing in that partnership in developing access on demand for Lapeer County Government information.
Lapeer County is the second fastest growing county in the state. Based on Michigan Department of Management and Budget, we can anticipate a 28% increase in population between the 1990 and the 2000 census. In many demographic categories, Lapeer County is ranked among the metropolitan rankings. However, we remain basically a rural area with a dispersed population. According to 1990 US Census Data, over 60,771 of our 74, 768 residents live in non-farm rural areas.
Our region is a rural one fringed by metropolitan areas to the south and east. We are experiencing rapid growth and increased demands for information services. We are aware that advances in satellite, fiber optic and digital telecommunications technologies make it possible for rural residents to hold information jobs with major employers and to enjoy a rural life style enhanced by improved education, social services and entertainment.
All governmental entities of Lapeer County recognize that our economic and community development is dependent on the implementation of this enhanced telecommunications infrastructure. Our public policy makers, businesses and communication carriers see the potential in developing the physical and institutional infrastructure needed to make our rural area viable in this information age and are jointly moving toward that goal.
County offices are clustered in or near the City of Lapeer, the County Seat. presently information meeting the day to day needs of the residents are disbursed throughout the departments, agencies and commissions. There is no central repository for information. According to the Lapeer County Clerk 80% of questions asked by telephone query concern regulations, addresses, office hours and "where-do-I go-to find-what-I-need" queries.
The vehicle for dissemination of the information is already in place. Lapeer County Information Depot [http://www.lapeer.org] is a civic network which is a collaborative effort by the Lapeer County Library, ISD, Schools, and Lapeer County Technology Coalition.
To that end, the schools and libraries have taken the lead in the development of Lapeer County Information Depot, our community network. Lapeer County Information Depot , our electronic community network provides the vehicle for accessible, timely, and relevant local information to all sectors of our community. The Lapeer County Information Depot Community Network partnership began in 1994 with the cooperative efforts of Lapeer County Intermediate School District and Lapeer County Library to represent our county in a group now Our known as the Greater Thumb Telecommunications Consortium, a combination of six intermediate school districts, St. Clair County Community College, and the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative which joined several years ago to apply for regional telecommunications grants.
Concurrently, the county's Community Support Council appointed The Lapeer County Technology Coalition with representatives from over 30 government, nonprofit, and business concerns to cooperatively attack local technology infrastructure needs which might otherwise be impossible to achieve in this relatively small, poor area. The coalition has moved to make development and support of the community network and provision of training programs and public access sites its primary goals. The libraries and school systems are involved in leadership of this group, but sustaining members include the Lapeer Association of Realtors, Michigan Employment Security Commission, United Way, Christian Family Services, Lapeer Area Chamber of Commerce, Lapeer Association of Realtors, Lapeer Development Corporation and many other groups.
The Coalition's mission is to support coordination of technology developments within the county. Lapeer County Information Depot is a visible manifestation of this mission. Based on the organization areas of representation in the Lapeer Community Support Council, Lapeer County Information Depot actively seeks and encourages participation by entities throughout the county. We recognize that these entities have unique and valuable information that is often times difficult for the public to access. We are working with them to identify and provide types of information most needed by the public.
Using the infrastructure described above, a teacher at Lapeer East High School and the assistant director of Lapeer County Library have volunteered their time to the coalition to support the Lapeer County Information Depot information base. However, rapid growth and the need to keep information current demand additional support for this effort, which we are seeking through the grant. At this time 32 web sites representing business and industry, education, government, health, houses of worship, labor, libraries, service organizations, and clubs are included on Lapeer County Information Depot at http://www.lapeer.org. Only two of these are Lapeer County Government entities; Lapeer County Health Department and Lapeer County Library.
Lapeer County Information Depot is fortunate to have sustaining financial support from two major sources. The Lapeer County Library, a system of eight jointly administered public library branches, has used grant funding from the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative and the Merit Network to establish a direct Internet connection supporting local dial-in modems and an Internet training center. Utilities, basic technical support and space are provided by Lapeer County Library.
The Lapeer County Information Depot server was purchased by the superintendents of the five county school districts and Lapeer County Intermediate School District. While connectivity and affiliate fees for the training center, modems in two sites and the server are currently being provided by grant funding from Merit and the library cooperative, the superintendents in April signed a letter of intent committing their districts to continuing Internet funding after the end of the grant periods, assuring that Lapeer County Information Depot will remain in place, actively promoting the schools, libraries, and other community interests to the benefit of county residents as well as those around the world who come for a "virtual visit".
The Lapeer County Library Assistant Director is charged with serving as the Information Development Chair and serves as web master for the library, government, and non-profit sites mounted on Lapeer County Information Depot. Our civic network has been in place since the summer of 1995 and presently has 35 participating entities; including schools, libraries, governmental units and non-profit organizations. Lapeer County Health Department was the first (and only, at this point) Lapeer County department to put up it's HomePage during the first week of September, 1996. Others are anxious to do so, but do not have the skills or training to transfer their information into HTML format.
A plateau in our growth due to the limits of time and energy of our small Lapeer County Information Depot volunteer group has been reached. In order to expand information development we need human infrastructure to support our technology infrastructure. Contracted services hired for a 12 month period will assure that Lapeer County Information Depot content development and training of Lapeer County entities will provide sustained continuation of local government information.
We have targeted software and computer upgrades to enhance existing services and provide new, dynamic, interactive services to build community involvement. This includes adding server capacity to expand our currently piloted e-mail accounts as well as accommodating conferencing software. And the addition of a software package for usage measurement and statistical analysis.
Procedures for set up and maintenance for e-mail and on-line meetings will be developed and tested. We will build on existing procedure for training trainers and enhance our public training program and manual. This will allow us to establish a calendar and sign-up methods to facilitate public training sessions.
The development of promotional presentations for potential community information providers and community outreach penetrations is critical to Lapeer County Information Depot's success. Effective road shows targeted at information providers and users will increase awareness of Lapeer County Information Depot and encourage further information development. A promotional brochure distributed throughout the area will heighten awareness and increase visibility.
By expanding the Lapeer County content on Lapeer County Information Depot, we will improve organization of and access to local government information. By adding value to the Lapeer County Government section, people will know:
The Lapeer County Library will facilitate content development and maintenance of Lapeer County governmental unit information. It will be housed it on Lapeer County Information Depot. The Lapeer County Library will develop and provide self sustaining training in use of Lapeer County Information Depot.web site development and maintenance. Netscape, FTP, and other appropriate software will be mounted on selected County computers to facilitate access to existing information and content development of new HTML documents. Each department will have the opportunity to have representatives trained in HTML authoring and Web site maintenance. Each department will have direct access to their pages, using FTP software, and will be trained in updating their information. Assistance will be available to aid the departments in these tasks.
Lapeer County Library is a major player in the Lapeer County Technology Coalition. The Library houses the Lapeer County Information Depot server, provides connection to the Internet through Merit, secured the IP address for Lapeer County Information Depot., and have been the major developer of information presently on the community networking site. The Library has also provide Internet access through the eight branches located throughout the county. And will provide limited public access workstations during 1997 in all locations. The Lapeer County Library Internet Training Center will continue to expand its training opportunities to Lapeer County residents, and will play a major role, along with Lapeer County Technology Coalition partners, in helping the public develop skills necessary for successful retrieval of needed information through the Internet.
Funded by another grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission, the connection of the Lapeer County Library's wide area network and Internet facilities to a county-wide fiber optic network which is now being built by the local and intermediate school districts guarantees distribution of Internet access across the county so that users at any school, community college, or library can dial-in with a local call to the site in Lapeer or a new one placed by Merit in the Dryden High School to serve the eastern side of the county.
The Lapeer County Technology Coalition has established three basic goals:
Continued training programs in Internet use and Web page development are being offered by both the library system and the Intermediate school district to school and library staff members. Public training is being offered on a limited basis by The Lapeer County Technology Coalition and will expand within the year. The Library is moving toward public access computers in tits eight branches. Other public access sites are being targeting throughout the county.
Sustainability is built into our developmental plan. The technical infrastructure will be in place, the human infrastructure will be developed throughout the granting period and will be in place to assure continuation of the Web site. Additional training and support will continue through Internet training efforts of The Lapeer County Technology Coalition and our expanding volunteer base. Additional public access sites will be forthcoming in partnering government, educational and non-profit centers throughout the county.
We, in Lapeer County, are working to meet the challenges of providing significant electronic networked-based information services to the residents of our community. The collaborative efforts and initiatives taking place in our small and rural libraries, schools and non-profit organizations across the county can serve as models to community networks of all sizes. The Lapeer County Library, Lapeer County United Way, Lapeer County Community Support Council, Lapeer Community Schools and Lapeer CountyTechnology Coalition have all provided input into the development of this project and have offered their support of it.
These objectives laid out in the proposal can be met through securing the help of contracted services that can concentrate on these tasks on a contiguous time frame. Within a window of twelve months, we are certain that our county recruitment and outreach, HTML literacy and training, and Web site maintenance and updating can be successfully institutionalized
| Abstract | Needs Assessment | Goals and Objectives | Objective Details | Timeline | |
| Promotion | Evaluation | Final Narrative Report | Expenditures | Project Participation Matrix |
Lapeer County Library / Lapeer County Government On-Line
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