For those whose mouths salivate at the prospect of studying topography or road maps, the City of Salem has the website for you. Maps of neighborhoods, bike routes, water and sewer service lines and many others are all available at the click of a mouse at cityofsalem.net.

"We went live with it about a month ago and are really happy with it," said Susan Blohm, the city's GIS (Graphic Information Services) supervisor for the Information Technology Department. "We've been making maps for probably 10 years and the projects are existing projects."
The main goal of GIS was to take maps available at various city department Web sites and bring them to one location, Blohm said. She said that since its release, city departments are receiving fewer calls about where to find the maps.

The site answers many burning questions such as which roads get cleared first in a snowstorm, or whether a home is in a known flood plain. For those interested in discovering where the city's formal boundaries and Urban Growth Boundary is located, it's all there.

The site will not only help map junkies get a quick fix, but also serve the business community and developers.

One map link shows City of Salem Vision 2020 maps, which include current and proposed housing projects, preservation and redevelopment projects and information about parks and open spaces.
Developers can get copies of water, sewer and utility lines for a fee; however, city survey information is free to use. Additionally, zoning information, county assessor's maps and Federal Emergency Management Agency maps are included.
Visitors' views are not merely limited to streets and topography. The site also has information about individual neighborhood associations and contact info and detailed statistics about crime sorted by individual neighborhoods.

The city needs the public's help as well, Blohm said.

"It's people on the ground that can see if our data is accurate," she said. "We use the maps for emergency services so if you see a map with wrong information in your neighborhood, please let us know right away."

While it may be new, Blohm said the city's GIS team is far from fulfilling its goal of having a fully interactive and robust mapping Web site.

"We see this as a baby step in what we'd really like to get to the public as far as services," she said.