Carbon County has a new tool to help people know when emergencies are happening, as well as providing relevant information to the public and emergency responders.

The county Geographical Information System, in collaboration with the 911 Communications Center recently launched the new 911 Geospatial Datahub as a way to improve and enhance the emergency communication system and resources.

Jason Shellhammer, GIS director, said that the datahub provides several agencies, like 911 and the Emergency Management Agency, with a “home for their data.”

Gary Williams, 911 director, and Justin Markell, assistant 911 director, met with Shellhammer and the three took their vision and made it a reality.

“We had spent a lot of time working on the Hubsite, and unfortunately it was delayed between staffing and COVID, but we were able to finally focus on this serious endeavor,” Shellhammer said.

“The Carbon County Communications Center has been searching for a way to better engage the community while also providing an avenue to push information out,” Markell said, adding that social media is good, but the 911 team felt they could do more.

The three used technology already available in the GIS and 911 departments, including using the ESRI GIS mapping software to bring all information under one umbrella.

Markell said that the sole purpose of the Datahub is better engagement of the general public, visitors of Carbon County, and our first responders.

“We will be changing some of the public facing information seasonally based on the outdoor activities and safety hazards of the current seasonal time period,” he said.

Information available on the site includes applications for emergency service personnel, public safety related maps, links to GIS based sides, federal and state information resources, radio frequencies, seasonal safety information, 911 forms, safety and situational awareness videos and more.

Plans for GIS data downloads and 911 reports are also in the works.

There is also an area to highlight the 911 dispatchers of the county.

“We also want to use this ArcHub site as a means to recognize our 911 dispatchers for the great work they do every day and that was the idea behind the IAM911 DISPATCHER SPOTLIGHT,” Markell said. “This is a section where we can shine some light on a particular 911 dispatcher each month or for a specific period of time.”

On the emergency responder side, Shellhammer noted that this application will also allow emergency services access to a password protected area, which will include sensitive situational awareness maps, and other important safety related information for scene responses.

“We are very excited to bring this to the public,” Markell said. “We look forward to working further to improve upon what we have done so far and make additions to enhance the site in the future.”

“We are far from finished with this,” Shellhammer added. “The hub will change to reflect meaningful seasons, events and other needs. We will also be adding to it enhancing the hub, and looking for input from the users.”

To access the datahub, visit https://carbon-county-property-hub-site-1-carbongis.hub.arcgis.com and click on “911 Geospatial Datahub.”