May 21, 2014
LIDAR lights the way on elevations
By Lee Coleman
The new revolution of mapping elevations in a city or county is being hailed as LIDAR, a way to get fairly accurate elevations over a broad area and help mitigate flooding.
At Monday’s Hazen City Commission meeting, Mercer County Water Resource Board attorney Greg Lange enlightened the commission on LIDAR, the costs and the benefits of having such a system in Hazen.
According to Lange, a complete system will cost $234,000 but said he is working with the North Dakota Water Commission on a 50 percent cost sharing program. Time is of essence because after July 1, the cost share will drop to 35 percent.
“If we keep moving forward, we’ll have to come up with $117,000,” Lange said. “We have a plan to share those costs as well.”
