The City of Reidsville 's Geographic Information System (GIS) software can best be described as an information investment for the community. GIS is a computerized system for developing, storing, managing and analyzing spatially related data. So what does that mean? It means information is tied to a specific location, such as your home address or an “x,y” coordinate like a fire hydrant.

How can GIS help the City of Reidsville and its residents? GIS can be used for a variety of applications from municipal mapping to determining the fastest way to route a vehicle from one location to another. In other words, it can help fire or police emergency vehicles get to you more quickly if you’re having a heart attack or someone is breaking into your house.

GIS can be used in non-emergency situations as well. Perhaps you’re interested in a vacant parcel of land, and you want to find out several details about the site. If you have the physical address of the property, you can use a GIS application to determine who the property owner is and his/her address, the zoning of the parcel, whether city water and sewer is available and whether the property is in a watershed, floodplain or historic district. You can even find out the tax value of the parcel. All of this information is built in layers. A layer of information can be “turned on or off” depending on what one wants to view.

In addition, the GIS program has special layers used by the Police Department to help officers in their investigation and tracking of crimes.

In just a few short years, the GIS program has become a very important tool that is used by virtually every department in the City. Having access to all of the information stored in these layers allows us to get information on a great variety of areas to citizens and developers in minutes when it used to take hours. It allows us to fine tune services such as trash pickup and rental inspection programs. It allows us to provide faster response to complaints such as overgrown yards, storm water problems and condemnable houses. It also allows us to manage programs such as planning and zoning, our sewer collection system, our water distribution system, and our Industrial Park more effectively.