While the employees of the Columbia Center aren't necessarily hobnobbing with the rich and famous, we've certainly been keeping great company: the Texas State Guard.

Our work with the Texas State Guard began in the summer of 2007 when, in collaboration with Colonel Charles Miller, plans were laid out for twelve hand-picked guardsmen to participate in a five day introductory GPS course at our facility on the Square in Downtown Nacogdoches.

The purpose of this training is to familiarize the State Guard with the use of geospatial technologies as tools in carrying out a successful first response to an emergency situation.

The initial training, which was held in December of 2007, was so well-received that it has cemented a relationship between the Texas Military Forces and the Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center System. In fact, over the months of April and May we will have held around a dozen similar training sessions for the State Guard in five different locations, with several of them happening at the same time!

In order to facilitate all of this training, the Columbia Center has sent emissaries to our System partners at locations over 800 miles apart in order to bring uniformity to our training. This has provided us a chance to "train our trainers" in order to develop a quality, system-wide training curriculum. The goal is for the CRGSC System to have trained over 150 guardsmen by the end of October 2008.

Aside from helping the Texas State Guard develop crucial skills in emergency response, these trainings have resulted in positive publicity for both the Columbia Center and the Guard. According to First Sergeant Steven Donaldson, "The press coverage was surprising in its results for the Texas State Guard. So far we have received over 40 requests for information about joining the Texas State Guard. The story was covered by two television stations who put their stories on the web. Both of those stories made it up my chain of command to the General Staff, and received praises all the way up. So besides all the skills we learned, we may wind up gaining some soldiers also. This will help us fulfill our mission of military assistance to civil authorities, and continue to live up to our motto: 'Texans Serving Texas.'"

Lubbock's News Channel 11 coverage of the training can be viewed below:



We are proud of our relationship with Texas' Finest, and look forward to exploring new opportunities for training in the future.

The Columbia Center’s web presence has been to the salon and had its hair done. It has picked out a new dress and a matching pair of shoes. It has stepped out onto the sidewalk, hoping to see heads turn. It might even appreciate a whistle or two.

But appearances are only pixel deep! The web site also offers a new navigation system in the form of the menu you see above, which stays at the top of every page you visit. The menu is broken down into the following main areas:

The best way to learn what the new site has to offer, of course, is to don that Safari hat and go exploring. If you need to find something specific, feel free to take a shortcut by using the Search box you’ll find at the top-right of every page.

Don’t hesitate to drop us a line and let us know what you think of our shiny new site. If there’s something we’ve missed, or a feature you would like to see implemented, please let us know! There are two ways you can do this. You can send us an email by visiting our contact page, or you can post in our public forum. Either way, we promise to get back to you in a timely manner.

Happy surfing!

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita left swaths of devastation across Louisiana and Texas, an unforeseen consequence reared its ugly head: many public water supplies had been contaminated by raw sewage. Soon after the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, 23 percent of the drinking water facilities in Louisiana were rendered inoperable, forcing the state to require residents to boil their water before use.

Having witnessed the problems Louisiana faced in the aftermath of these disasters, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality identified a crucial gap in data required to assure Texas residents timely restoration of public water services during natural disasters and other emergency situations. With funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Columbia Center is working alongside TCEQ to fill this data gap.

The data being collected by the Columbia Center include GPS locations for water treatment plants, water storage tanks, wells, entry points, and interconnects. For each of these locations, vital information about these systems is being recorded. A database is being compiled for distribution. All data face a rigorous quality control audit involving the use of high-resolution aerial photography for verification. After passing quality control standards, data are submitted to TCEQ. In the end, each requesting water supply receives a map showing the location of their critical facilities, providing emergency responders a powerful tool for assessing the safety of water supplies.

Currently, the project is limited to mapping water supplies servicing less than 3300 customers in counties adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico and in East Texas most susceptible to damage by hurricanes. Plans are under way to map every public water system in the entire state of Texas.

This is a formidable project, requiring several Columbia Center staff members to commit full-time to its implementation. Our current field crew, Buddy and Chyrell Reich, are deployed in the Houston area where they are facing the daunting task of mapping around 600 public water systems, while facing traffic and other big-city challenges. Despite these challenges, they are successfully mapping close to 20 public water supplies per week, while developing positive relationships with water supply managers and other individuals.

Ryan Hudiburgh, a wildlife graduate student studying under Dr. James Kroll, is overseeing scheduling and logistical coordination of the project. Assisted by students Amy Braig and Chelsea West, water supplies are contacted by phone to solicit their participation in the project. On average, numerous calls, emails, letters and/or faxes are necessary to set up each appointment.

Paul R. Blackwell, Assistant Director for Operations, said “This project fills a critical need identified during the Hurricane Katrina and Rita responses. The results will allow emergency resources to be deployed more efficiently, restoring clean, safe drinking water to more people, more quickly than is currently possible. This is one of the most important applications of geospatial technology we have undertaken. We are proud to be a part of it.” The Columbia Center hopes to finish with the current scope of the project by the first of September, 2008.

At times, when in polite conversation, a staff member of the Columbia Center is asked “So what is it that you do?” This is somewhat of an awkward moment, as the esoteric, technical nature of the collection and processing of geospatial data can be difficult to relate without a crash course in the field of geospatial information systems.

That is why the Columbia Center jumps at the chance to make practical, every day application of the data we collect and maintain. One such opportunity landed in the lap of Johnny Brown (Geospatial Applications Specialist II) when Nacogdoches Election Coordinator Debra Gaston called. “Several years ago, we purchased some mapping software to help with determining voter precincts, but it was not as accurate as we needed it to be,” said Gaston. “On one county road you can have as many as three different precincts depending on where and on what side of the road you live. We made the best we could with what we had.”

Fortunately, the Columbia Center maintains a constantly updated database which can be used to create the most current maps available for the Nacogdoches area. “They were able to understand my dilemma, and because of Johnny’s assistance, we’ve been able to clean up our data extensively. I personally feel our voter rolls are in the best shape they’ve ever been,” said Gaston. She was so happy, in fact, that she baked the Columbia Center a cake in time for a staff meeting over lunch. “I can’t say enough good things about the assistance I’ve had and the maps they produced.” Gaston said.

       

The Columbia Center continues to field questions from the Election Office regarding the correct voter district for individual addresses. “Sometimes I send over pages worth of addresses to verify. I get a response immediately.” said Gaston.

While the pride staff members at the Columbia Center take in their work is motivation enough, sometimes there’s nothing better than high praise and baked goods.

Begins: Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Ends: Sunday, February 03, 2008 at 5:00 PM



Two large-scale models of the space shuttle will be part of a temporary exhibit of NASA memorabilia opening soon in downtown Nacogdoches to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Columbia tragedy.

The exhibit is being sponsored by Stephen F. Austin State University's Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center and the Columbia Memorial Museum. It will be open to the public from Jan. 26 to Feb. 10 in the vacant Wyatt building next door to Nacogdoches City Hall on the downtown square.

In conjunction with the exhibit, organizers also are holding a reunion for those who participated in the long recovery effort and kicking off a new campaign to record the recollections of recovery workers for posterity.

On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, and all seven astronauts on board were lost. The expansive debris field covered much of East Texas, including Nacogdoches and surrounding counties.

"There were literally thousands of people who came here to search for debris and help with the recovery effort, and, except for their individual recollections, we have no way to record their experiences for history," said Dr. Morris Jackson, director of the Columbia Memorial Museum. "We are hoping to sit down with as many of them as possible over the coming weeks and begin to preserve their living histories for future generations."

Along with the models of the space shuttle, the exhibit will include large panels with printed information and photographs detailing the history of space exploration in the United States. Scrapped space shuttle components also will be available for viewing; however, no debris from the Columbia disaster will be included in the display.

"This is the first time an exhibit of this magnitude and quality has been brought to East Texas, and it really chronicles the whole history of the shuttle program," said Dr. James Kroll, director of the Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center. "The displays are just incredible, so we are hoping a lot of people will take advantage of the opportunity to come and see the exhibit."

The exhibit will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays; and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free.

Volunteers are needed to serve as docents for the exhibit. If you would like to help, call the Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center at (936) 468-6100. Donations for the Columbia Memorial Museum may be mailed to P.O. Box 635007, Nacogdoches, TX, 75963-5007.