This week, the Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO) has added Toni Oden, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist at the Craighead County Assessor Office, to its list of GIS leaders in Arkansas. Toni has lived in Jonesboro her entire life, and has been doing mapping work since Craighead enrolled in the County Assessor Mapping Program (CAMP) in 2003. Toni’s biggest project at the Assessor’s Office has been locating parcel polygons for Craighead, and making sure they are accurately maintained. “We’re not finished,” said Toni, and stated that her office still has to locate parcel polygons for some of the smaller towns. “We are always updating and changing.”

Toni has been working with the city of Jonesboro, a contracting firm from Memphis, and with members of the AGIO to complete this project. “Any time I come across something I don’t know, or if I need to try something different, I usually call Adrian or Maria [at the AGIO]. They’ve been very helpful,” said Toni. She adds that her office and Jonesboro have been working well together throughout the course of this project.  In addition to Jonesboro hiring the Memphis contracting firm for the Assessor’s Office, they have also held monthly meetings to assure everything is on track. Toni comments that data sharing has been somewhat slow between the city and her office due to high turnover rates. However, Toni said, “I can call a surveyor and he can tell me just about anything. So we all work really well together.”

Toni comments that one challenge she has faced so far is finding tax-exempt properties in Craighead. However, her greatest sense of accomplishment as a GIS Specialist comes from being able to help people find what they need, such as land owners or those inquiring about property owners. We at the AGIO appreciate Toni’s dedication to Craighead County, and recognize her as a valued member of Arkansas’ GIS community.