Pam Cannon, head of Linn County's GIS/Mapping Department transformed that department from paper to digital copies more than two decades ago. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the Linn County Commissioners received Linn County GIS/Mapping Director Pam Cannon’s announcement that she would be retiring with her last day on Feb. 28.
Commissioner Jason Hightower made the motion to accept her retirement with gratitude from the commission. The motion passed.
“We’d like to thank Pam for her years of service,” said Commission Chair Jim Johnson. “And we need to put an ad in the paper for her job title.”
Hightower said that the ad for GIS/Mapping Administrator needed to be posted both externally and internally for two weeks.
The commissioners agreed to have Jason Parker take over that position as interim administrator on Feb. 28. Commissioners will discuss the corresponding compensation for Parker taking over those duties at a later date.
Cannon said in an interview on Wednesday that she has worked for the county for 29 years. She started out out working for the county in the appraiser’s office. When 911 addressing began, a separate department GIS/Mapping was formed.
She set up the new department and became the administrator of it. The department switched from paper copy to digital in 2003.
The work of the department includes a constant updating of maps that include new parcel owners as land changes hands. That department is instrumental in providing maps to cities and other entities, including the county’s planning and zoning commission and the committee that worked on updating the strategic plan a couple of years ago.
Cannon belongs to the Kansas Association of Mappers and was on their Board of Directors for six years. Three of those years serving in the positions of president, president-elect and past president.
Last July, Cannon went to the commissioners because both she and GIS/Mapping technician Carol Klopfenstein were looking at retiring in the near future. She asked the commission to hire a person to train to work in that office.
The two-person office became a three-person office when she recommended Jason Parker who had been working in the appraiser’s office and had the experience with appraisal and reports for land use. He was hired and Cannon has been training him since then.
Parker has worked for the department for about seven months. On March 3, the commissioners will decide what pay schedule to temporarily assign to Parker for his interim work.
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