Policy Statement Regarding the Standard Geographic Code for Maine Minor Civil Divisions
GIS Executive
Council
Revised
September 29, 1999
Presented as a
“First Reading” to the Information Services Policy Board 1/20/00
Whereas, the Maine GIS Technical Committee
was charged by the GIS Executive Council to formulate standards governing the
ongoing and widespread use geographic codes for Maine minor civil divisions,
and
Whereas, the geographic codes table has been revised several times to reflect the creation of new towns and/or a change in town status since original adoption by the Governor in July 1971,
Whereas, some state agencies continue to use the original codes and other agencies have adopted the changes which impedes efficient data sharing and integration, and
Now therefore be it
resolved:
the Information Services Policy Board adopt the following recommendations of
the GIS Executive Council:
1.
All
state agencies will use the standard geographic codes adopted on July 1, 1971
to identify Maine minor civil divisions in databases, geospatial databases,
spreadsheets and other computer based data storage and analysis systems. Four new geographic codes will be added to
the 1971 list to identify the towns of Frye Island (05085), Long Island (05125),
Muscle Ridge Shoals Township (13803) and
Islands of Moosehead Lake (21000) which were either formed or recognized
after 1971.
2.
The
Maine Office of GIS will be responsible for implementing, maintaining and
providing information about any version changes as follows:
a.
maintain
and provide access to a database relating the geographic code with the town
name and official status (i.e., city, town, plantation, reservation,
unorganized township)
b.
the
status code will be changed to reflect changes in minor civil division status
without changing the geographic code (i.e., the geographic code will never
change)
c.
new
minor civil divisions will be assigned geographic codes based upon the existing
protocol, if possible. Using the
“reserved” numbers will maintain the correspondence between a numerical sort
and alphabetical order within county.
.
d.
if
a minor civil division is legislated out of existence, the geocode will be
retired and tracked in related history databases.