CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2016 NATIONAL TRIG-STAR WINNERS

The Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star Awards are as follows:

1st Place:  Collin Free, Syracuse High School, Syracuse, UT

2nd Place: Avi Swartz, Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, CO

3rd Place:  Aaron Sun, Ed W. Clark High School, Las Vegas, NV

Collin Free

Avi Swartz

Aaron Sun

 The Richard E. Lomax National Teaching Excellence Awards are as follows:

1st Place:   Ashley Martin, Syracuse High School, Syracuse, UT

2nd Place:  Dotty Dady, Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, CO

3rd Place:   Saundra D. Jordan, Ed W. Clark High School, Las Vegas, NV

The first place student receives $2,000, second place student receives $1,000, and third place student receives $500.  The first place teacher receives $1,000, second place teacher receives $500, and third place teacher receives $250.  The Trig-Star Policy states that “the National Student and Teacher Awards be given to the winning students at or before the next state professional land surveying organization conference of the student’s home state.”

The following is a list of the remaining State Winners in the order of finish:

Junhee Lee, Iowa; Veronica Xinyu Gu, Minnesota; Thomas Szczesniak, Michigan; Dagin Lin, Connecticut; John Mastroberti, South Carolina; Yiwei Lyu, Pennsylvania; Tao Lu, Texas; Antonio Faraci, New York; Qingfeng Li, Wyoming; Giovanni Budi, North Carolina; Stephan Terry, Delaware; Alan Zho, South Dakota; Veronica Lahony Suarez Torres, Puerto Rico; Noah Paladino, New Jersey; Elizabeth Asp, North Dakota; William Quinn Marsh, California; Andrew Reimer-Berg, Oregon; Zander Rossman, Wisconsin; Travis Casey, Kansas; William Zhang, Alabama; Jelisa Holmquist, Montana; William Luqiu, Virginia; Nicholas Lillis, Maine; Walter Johnson, Kentucky; Madison Gaines, Maryland; Thomas Pointer, Missouri; Jeffery Mayolo, Washington; Timothy Kammerer, New Hampshire; Christian Lynch, Massachusetts; Wyatt Evan Turner, Georgia; Joel Niemi, Ohio; Haoxiang Li, Illinois; Tingyi Lu, Indiana; Drake Thomas, Alaska; Kael Stelek, Idaho.

ALTA/NSPS Question

Regarding Table A, Item 6, in the cases where we don’t get zoning reports from our clients, we still state the zoning classification and the bulk requirements for height and setback only (not coverage or parking).  We qualify these notes stating that the information is per jurisdictional public information. 

In your opinion, based on your reading of the requirements, if I don’t receive a zoning report, should I be excluding citing 6a and 6b in my certificate even though I have qualified where the information comes from?

Response:

In my opinion, that would be entirely up to you. I see nothing whatsoever wrong with either approach. 

Requiring that the report be provided to the surveyor was a purposeful attempt by both ALTA and NSPS to move liability for zoning matters off of the surveyor and on to people/companies who specialize in such work. 

If you are willing to take some of that liability back, I see no reason that you cannot do that (with an appropriate 'disclaimer' as to where the information came from), although pursuant to the standards, you do not have to. 

NSPS exhibits at the American School Counselor Association

NSPS exhibits at the American School Counselor Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA - July 8-1.

NSPS President Tony Cavell and Robert Mora II (LA) speaking about surveying careers with some of the conference's 3000 attendees.

2016 Map/Plat Design Competition

NSPS is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 Map/Plat Design Competition, and expresses its appreciation for all who participated.  NSPS also wishes to thank the judges for their dedicated efforts. Visit http://www.nsps.us.com/?page=MapPlat for press release.

Subdivision Plats

            First Place                   Harry Smith – Northeast Surveying, Inc. - Wisconsin

            Second Place              Kyle Mott – BME Associates – New York

            Third Place                 Jeff Vierrether – MSA, PC - Virginia

Boundary/Cadastral Maps

            First Place                   Jason Woods – Planners & Engineers Collaboration - Georgia

            Second Place              Steven Bieda – Mau & Associates - Wisconsin

            Third Place                 John B. Guyton – Flatirons, Inc. Surveying & Engineers - Colorado

Topographic Maps

            First Place                   Brent Evans – Christopher Consultants - Virginia

            Second Place              Rodney Kiser – High Country Engineering, Inc. - Colorado

Third Place                 Tammy Privett – CEI Engineering Associates, Inc. - Arkansas

ALTA/ACSM Survey Maps

            First Place                   William E. Grueninger III – Gutschick, Little & Weber, PA - Maryland

            Second Place              Lewis R. Shelton – LRS Surveying - Georgia

            Third Place                 Tammy Privett – CEI Engineering Associates, Inc. - Arkansas

Miscellaneous Maps

            First Place (tie)            Jeffery Nading – Colorado Department of Transportation - Colorado

            First Place (tie)            Ryan Duckart – Brown County - Wisconsin

            Second Place              Rodney Kiser – High Country Engineering, Inc. - Colorado

            Third Place                 Kolby F. Shertz – Quest Civil Engineering, LLC - Wisconsin

2016 Excellence in Journalism Competition

NSPS is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 Excellence in Journalism Competition, and expresses its appreciation for all who participated.  NSPS also wishes to thank the judges for their dedicated efforts.

Best State Society Magazine

            The Cornerpost Volume 46, No. 3, Fall 2015

            http://www.vsls.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Cornerpost_Fall2015.pdf

David A. Mann LS, Editor 

Vermont Society of Land Surveyors

Best Newsletter

            Pennsylvania Surveyor (paper and online), Summer 2015

            http://www.psls.org/Resources/Documents/newsletters/PA_Surveyor_Summer.pdf

            Donald E. Rife PLS, Editor 

            Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors

           

Best Editorial

            A Good Pair of Boots by Bob Plubs (aka Plumb Bob)

            The TBM, July 2015 Volume 17, No. 7, Page 3 

            New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association

Best Original Feature Article

            Honoring the Survey of the Michigan Meridian by Joseph Fenicle

            Michigan Surveyor, Spring/Summer 2015           

            Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors

ALTA/NSPS Question

Question:
It seems that I'm at odds with some on whether in performing either a boundary survey or an ALTA/NSPS survey one should find as many property corners or monuments as possible on the block in which the parcel is situated. Some say just locate the property corners of the site for an ALTA/NSPS survey, while if you are doing a boundary then you go outside your site. I believe you should do this for both in order to prove that the parcel is where it is supposed to be. Am I wrong in thinking this way? Is an ALTA/NSPS survey more like a supersized mortgage survey where you just find the property corners of that parcel or site, and then any additional items on Schedule A? I'm curious now.

Response:
Those who say that an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is something less than a boundary survey are woefully misinformed and have apparently not read the Standards. A Land Title Survey is not just a supersized mortgage survey. Here is what Section 3.D. of the 2016 (and 2011) Standards say about this issue. "The boundary lines and corners of any property being surveyed as part of an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey shall be established and/or retraced in accordance with appropriate boundary law principles governed by the set of facts and evidence found in the course of performing the research and fieldwork." Clearly an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a boundary survey. It's a boundary survey to a higher set of standards than a "generic" boundary survey. Someone approaching a Land Title Survey as something less than a boundary survey would likely suffer a claim of malpractice or negligence if something goes wrong.

Why no "leaning towers"? Thank a surveyor!

http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/why-we-don-t-have-a-leaning-tower-of-downtown/article_6c38e696-1081-11e6-9b9e-f7c6a4b1e8a2.html

Surveyors from the Downtown office of the engineering and consulting firm Psomas inspect the Wilshire Grand tower almost every day to make sure that the 73-story building is standing straight. Misplaced joints or angles that are off by a fraction of a degree can pose big problems as skyscrapers rise.

photo by Gary Leonard