Curtis Carlson and Jill Bondhus presented Lyon County GIS Coordinator Mark Volz, at center, with a certificate of recognition and challenge coin this week. Volz has worked to help several Minnesota counties update their 911 systems to use GIS technology.

MARSHALL — A Lyon County employee is doing important behind-the-scenes work to help update 911 systems across Minnesota, presenters at this week’s Lyon County Board meeting said.

On Tuesday, representatives of the state of Minnesota’s Information Technology department and the Department of Public Safety’s Emergency Communication Networks presented Lyon County Geographic Information System Coordinator Mark Volz with a certificate of recognition and a challenge coin.

“He has had a significant impact across the entire state of Minnesota,” said Jill Bondhus, with the ECN.

“(Mark) is the one that has the boots on the ground and the shovel in the data, if you will,” said Curtis Carlson, of the state of Minnesota IT department. “And he’s done a phenomenal job directly helping seven counties . . . and then serving as a consultant for many others.”

It was positive to be able to help emergency responders do their jobs, Volz said this week.

“It’s an honor,” Volz said of the award. “But by far our most important people are our first responders and dispatchers.”

On Tuesday, Lyon County Commissioners heard a short presentation from Bondhus and Carlson. The state IT department and ECN both work with 911 systems across Minnesota, as well as efforts to change over to the next generation of 911 technology, they said.

“As the state of Minnesota is updating their technologies and we’re moving from the legacy system, which is the system that was designed for the telephones on the walls in everyone’s home, to the next-gen 911, one of the focuses that we need to have for that is GIS development,” Bondhus said.

Next-gen 911 systems use GIS technology not only to map the location of an emergency call, but to determine which county and emergency responders get the call, Volz said. It should help improve the accuracy of 911 systems, he said.

Volz said the move toward next-gen 911 systems in Minnesota began in 2020. There is also a statewide effort to standardize 911 systems in Minnesota.

Bondhus told county commissioners Volz had completed important work for next-gen 911 for seven different Minnesota counties. The list included Lyon, Pipestone, Lac qui Parle, Murray, Waseca, Brown and Lake of the Woods Counties.

“He has supported those counties in making sure that they are ready for the migration to the Next-Gen 911,” Bondhus said. “He has also been a consultant, and a silent leader in the background, helping counties such as Rice County, Meeker County, Rock County and Kanabec County.”

Carlson said Volz is also active with groups including the Statewide Emergency Communications Board’s next-gen 911 work group, and the southwest Minnesota GIS users group.

“Mark has an amazing ability to understand how the work he does here at the local level feeds up to quality GIS data to support state agencies,” Carlson said. “He also understands how his data here at the local level feeds to support national-level databases.”

Volz said he wasn’t expecting the recognition Tuesday. The effort to update 911 systems is something that’s important across Minnesota, he said.

“I just wanted the best for everyone. This was a way of helping out,” Volz said.