The technology that enables the Seward County assessor and zoning administrator to view properties without spending hours in the car creates a library of data that is now being used by emergency management, law enforcement, roads department, the county attorney and zoning staff to see the county with a different perspective.
Since 2021 Seward County Assessor Marilyn Hladky has contracted with Eagleview, formerly known as Pictometry, to acquire aerial photography of the county. The photography was updated in 2024, after which county officials decided to update every two years.
In March 2026, the most recent aerial photography was completed at a cost of $67,410 and county staff are now being trained on the current Eagleview features, Hladky said. The county has a six-year contract for the imaging to be renewed every other year, usually around March when little snow and few leaves obstruct views.
Tim Horak, Eagleview senior director of marketing, said in a recent interview the company began working with assessors across the country and gradually expanded to provide images for a variety of government services. The company also serves utilities, telecommunications and other business sectors.
Pictometry began in Rochester, NY, which Horak said has a pedigree in imaging – it was long home to Kodak, a 130-year old company focused on imaging, chemicals and printing, Bausch & Lomb, which makes contact lenses and eye health products, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, which had a specialty in imaging and remote sensing.
When the World Trade Center was attacked in 2001, Horak said one of the company’s leaders with a background in law enforcement went to New York City to offer accurate aerial images of during the rescue and clean up phases.
Horak said they were happy to provide support for the people on the ground doing the difficult work of structure removal.
Tools for storm aftermath
Since then, government clients across the country have utilized the company’s images in the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, including the tornado that struck Elkhorn in 2024. Those clients are provided new imagery for up to 200 square miles of an area without additional charge.
Later Pictometry merged with Eagleview, which had been focused on providing “roof reports” to help contractors remotely determine the products needed for roofing jobs. Horak said people refer to other kinds of aerial images as Pictometry now, too, but Eagleview pioneered the high-resolution work.
An August Independent story about the county zoning office’s ability to flag changes in the building landscape in the county incorrectly attributed the images to drones.
Horak said Eagleview’s technology resides in the “Goldilocks spot” between drones, which can be maneuvered around specific areas, and satellite imagery that takes broad views like those that appear on Google Maps.
Eagleview affixes a high-powered camera to the belly of “fixed wing aircraft” which can be set to gather images at 45- and 90-degree angles. He likens its path to mowing, where the aircraft flies over the county in rows east to west and north to south to cover an entire county or other land division thoroughly.
The process also stores the unique shot by longitude and latitude.
It then stores images in tiny pixels, which is short for picture elements, and can be viewed in sections as small as one- or three-inch squares. When put together they create a “mosaic” of the county, he said.
The 90-degree “trigonal” views look directly down, so they show rooftops, but do not show how tall a building is. The 45-degree “oblique” images are like birds’-eye views, showing the context of the structures and features, such as how many stories a building has.
Application for assessors, others
Eagleview continues to work with the International Association of Assessing Officers to assure the images needed. Many of the company’s clients are counties.
“If you build up a library, you can start to compare those,” Horak said of the images.
Utilizing technical machine learning, Eagleview has developed a “Changefinder” system that can compare images from one session to another – which most clients do every two years like Seward County.
It can note whether structures, trees, signs, fire hydrants, or other features have been removed, demolished or enhanced, saving government officials the time of driving to all locations.
“It really helps the county do their job effectively,” Horak said.
He noted that it can lead to increased revenues for governments through assessments and required fees, but also can verify situations where assessments should be lowered.
“I know I am biased, but I believe in the product so much because it does afford the ability of so many government services,” Horak said.
Hladky said the service is not cheap, but many counties are relying on it to help them do their work.
She noted Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers in 2025 issued an opinion that county assessors should not step onto private property without owner permission but could view property from a public sidewalk or road.
That is not a law or court ruling, but Hladky said assessors are mindful of that.
Horak said public safety offices, including 911 dispatchers, often utilize the mapping information to view a daylight image of an area they are guiding emergency personnel to after dark.
“There is unlimited use of this imagery,” he said, noting that new algorithms are developed for artificial intelligence for new applications.
The point-in-time images cannot be used for surveillance or tracking people, he said, because the images are taken only periodically.
