Change of area of Kut Chum Phatthana subdistrict municipality

Announced today, the boundaries of the subdistrict municipality Kut Chum Phatthana (เทศบาลตำบลกุดชุมพัฒนา), Kut Chum district, Yasothon province was changed. The announcement, signed for publication on April 9 2008 already, includes as an appendix the exact definition of the boundaries of the municipality and a map. The text of the actual announcement however just states that the original boundaries changed now were announced in 1965 with the creation of the sanitary district (Sukhaphiban) Kut Chum Phatthana (สุขาภิบาลกุดชุมพัฒนา), which also included a map.

However comparing the maps of the two announcements however is a bit difficult, as the alignment of the streets does not fit at all. It seems to me that there was a serious mapping mistake in the old map, which shows the main street through the town as being completely straight, and only a slight change of direction towards the bridge over the two branches of the small river. Yet, comparing it with current map, the bridge is in east-west direction, then comes a 90° turn to the north and a slight curveing towards north-east. Also, Wat Phra Chumphon is drawn within the street rectangles in the old one, while in fact it is outside it nowadays - I don't think the temple has been moved. So I now have to take the maps in the old municipal announcement with a lot more care.

With the transcripts of the board meetings, it is even possible to trace the decision process for this change a bit - well, if you are able to read Thai, I can only guess what it is about. It was first discussed in meeting 12/2550 on April 5 2007, and then again in Meeting 15/2008 on February 22 2008.

Nice thing - with the map in the announcement I can now fine-tune the placemark for the district office in the Wikipedia article of the district, as well as I now know the location of the municipal office nearly directly next to it. And next to the municipal office Google Maps also shows a city pillar, which would be another addition to the list of city pillars outside the provincial capitals. Anyone can give details on that one? Just sad there are no hires satellite data in Google Earth for this town, and in PointAsia it is nearly totally covered with clouds.