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Home My WebLink AboutWCSA Minutes 08-12-2016.pdfWisconsin County Surveyors Association, Inc. Minutes Of the WCSA August 12, 2016, Meeting Clark County Courthouse, NC: aville, WI Board of Directors Attending Wade Pettit Clark County I Bryan Meyer La Crosse County Gary Dechant Juneau & Monroe Co Brenda Hemstead State Cartographer's Office Steve Geiger Polk County � Peter Kuen Fond du Lac County WCSA Members/Others Attending Terry Van Hout Brown County Laurence Johns Vernon County Rob Merry SEWRPC Dave Tlusty Langlade County Dan Pleoger Sawyer County Cody Steines Clark County Jim Hebert Outagamie County Al Schneider Price County Glen Schaefer Retired Joe Nelson Buffalo/Trempealeau County Gregg Batzer Dunn County Brian Gross Oconto County John Fitzl Rusk County Jason Bolz Brown County Dave Johnson Outagamie County Chris Fieri Marathon County Travis LeMoine Seiler Instrument David Decker Marathon County Diane Arendt WisDOT Tom Carlson Dunn County Brad Heuer Rock County Mark Netterlund Barron County Brian Halling St. Croix County Chris Gregory Sawyer County Catlon Phelps Sawyer County Paul Bernard Lincoln County Tony Dallman Lincoln County Dean Roth Eau Claire County Anna Davey WisDOT Mike Piller WisDOT Christina Martin WisDOT President Bryan Meyer called the meeting to order at 10:10 am and thanked Wade for hosting the meeting. Introductions were made with no additions to the agenda. A change to the minutes was noted under Old Business, #3 to indicate Vernon County's digital parcel mapping is at 60%. Motion by Wade Pettit and second by Steve Geiger to approve the Minutes from the May 6, 2016, meeting. Motion carried. Secretary's Report: Brenda prepared minutes from the May meeting, prepared the agenda, updated the county surveyor directory, and updated the online membership status map now reflecting 47 counties, designed a WCSA business card that will be included in the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors newsletter and on their website as a sustaining member, and prepared and distributed the Summer newsletter. Treasurer's Report: Steve noted the Association's dues are essentially "on pace" as with last year. An exception is not having received sustaining membership dues from Pipe 'N Sticks. The balances as of August 121 2016, were $1025.43 in checking and $6024.66 in savings. Total dues collected to date are $5150. Motion by Peter Kuen and second by Gary Dechant to approve the Secretary's and Treasurer's Reports. Motion carried. Correspondence: Bryan noted he didn't have any correspondence to report. Terry Van Hout mentioned they hired Jason Bolz (Ryan's replacement) and are happy to have him onboard. Education Segment WIaDOT—Anna Davey, "Rails al Ulm Review" Mike Piller, Supervisor of the WisDOT NW Region technical services engineering unit introduced himself and NW region coordinators (NW region consists of 20 counties). He introduced Christina Martin, having 15 years of experience in survey and highway platting and Anna Davey, having 20+ years of experience in information technology, construction services, contract management, and railroad coordination. Anna started her presentation by explaining the roles and responsibilities of rails and harbors, and regional railroad coordinators. She noted a regional railroad coordinator is the region's single point of contact for almost everything related to railroads. Regional railroad coordinators: NW Region - Anna Davey at 715-392-7960; NC Region - Steve Kientiz at 715-365-5762; NE Region —Jared Kinziger at 920-492-7713; SW Region — Scott Willinger at 608-792-1360; and SE Region — Paul Derksen at 262-548-8770. She indicated the Office of the Commissioner of Railroads (OCR) is a state agency with the primary responsibility for making determinations of the adequacy of warning devices at railroad crossings, along with other railroad and water carrier related regulations. Every real estate transfer or lease, deed of trust, mortgage or satisfaction made by any railroad corporation must be filed with the OCR. Anna noted for WisDOT Projects, WisDOT and its authorized representatives have legal authority to enter private railroad property to make survey and inspections pursuant to 84.01(10) Wisconsin Statutes. For non- WisDOT Projects, Right of Entry Permit is required. Additional details about Anna's presentation (PowerPoint) can be viewed at http://wsls.org/images/WSLS/WCSA/pubs/Rails Harbors WisDOT 08122016.pdfI SCO —Brenda Hemstead, "Bearing Trees Map Demo" Brenda showed a demo of an application her office recently developed that displays the location of bearing trees in Wisconsin. She refreshed the group, stating about a year ago her office was interested in creating an online application showing the location of bearing trees and wanted to know if the members thought it would be useful. Members had indicated it would be but they either didn't have the time or resources to field check them or the bearing trees no longer exist in their county. However, she noted her office had recently received several inquiries about the locations of bearing trees and their preservation. As a result, Howard Veregin (State Cartographer) developed an application showing the location of known bearing trees. Currently, six bearing trees are displayed in the online application, "Discovering Wisconsin Bearing Trees" along with the General Land Office plat map, field notes, photos, and links to their tie sheets. Visit the online application at http://maps.sco.wisc.edu/bearingtrees. Bryan noted John Ellingson, NGS had to reschedule his presentation/demo on GEOCON for the next meeting. Glen Schaefer noted the NGS was ending the State Advisor Program and John will become a Regional Advisor effective October 1, 2016, He will no longer have an office at WisDOT and members should contact him using his NGS email atjohn.ellingson@noaa.gov or phone 202-306-6904. Seiler Instruments —Travis LaMoine, "Updated UAVs Rules and Laws" Travis explained the new laws the FAA released in June, specifically Section 333 that authorized the FAA to exempt parties from certain aspects of current regulation to allow for UAVs (5,361 exemptions as of 3/16/16). He noted there are three groups: flights for purely hobby or recreation, government operations, and civil operations. He also explained the operational highlights, airspace restrictions, and special exemptions. Additional details about Travis's presentation (PowerPoint) can be viewed at http://wsls.or�/images/WSLS/WCSA/pubs/CountySurveyor 107 UAS pdf. I. Old Business 1) Status of County Surveyor Offices: Dodge County, Mike Canniff replaced Ted Dumke who is now working for the Washington County Highway Department. Green Lake and Douglas County replacements are still pending and Brian Gross is now the county surveyor for Oconto County. Brenda noted she received an inquiry from Oconto County discussing their PLSS as it relates to funding from the Wisconsin Land Information Program and they wanted to know how much do counties charge for PLSS remonumentation? They also indicated they currently do not have any PLSS attributes in digital form but do have their tie sheets scanned. Brenda responded saying the cost varies from county to county but was unable to provide or reference anything more specific and looked for advice from members. The response given was the cost could be anywhere from $500 to $5000 due to many variables. She asked if the cost could be associated by categories of remonumentation and after further discussion, members concluded the cost is dependent on the variables. Joe Nelson indicated he was uncomfortable about the WCSA distributing and/or referencing RFPs for counties to use for PLSS remonumentation. He felt counties will simply take the lowest bid and was concerned this takes away from promoting the need to employ a county surveyor. He recommended the WCSA should take a position on either supporting or not supporting RFPs. Members discussed options noting some corners are easy to remonument and others are not; some use WLIP funding to hire LTEs for remonumenting; maybe contract with a professional surveyor who lives in the county; could remove the cost from the RFPs; and concluded the WCSA would create a Notice of Interest (NO1) for distribution/reference. A subcommittee was formed with Joe Nelson, Laurence Johns, and Glen Schaefer to develop an NOL 2) PLSS Workgroup Status: Brenda noted the PLSS Workgroup was formed as an outcome from the Parcel & Surveying Forum held in February to provide educational information about the PLSS. She noted a series of three articles have/will be written for publishing in the Wisconsin Counties Association newsletter (August, September, and October issues). The Workgroup also crafted a position statement on the importance of the PLSS to provide a consistent message that can be delivered to county officials and other decision -makers about the importance and value of PLSS. A cover letter was also created to help explain the position statement for the organizations the individuals in the workgroup belong to, in hopes they support the Workgroup's position and allow their logo be used in documentation. Steve expressed his advocacy and asked the WCSA Board for their approval and support. Terry Van Hout mentioned he's on the Board of Directors for the WSLS and indicated the position statement was very well written. Motion by Steve Geiger and second by Gary Dechant to support the PLSS Workgroup's position paper. Motion carried. 3) Resources &Cost for PLSS Corners: Bryan noted part of this topic was previously discussed in Item 1 above (Status of County Surveyor Offices). However, Brenda wrapped up this topic recapping the discussion she and the GIO gave at the May meeting on the need to determine a cost per corner. She noted Dan Frick offered to put together his materials for the WCSA and a Return on Investment (ROI) but hadn't yet had time to do so and hoped he would have it ready for the November meeting. J. New Business 1) A-E 7: Joe expressed concerns about the revisions and administering them. He thought the WCSA should pursue the Registration Board to allow the WCSA to have input in revisions especially those that pertain to the PLSS. Discussion continued about Section 7.05, paragraph 5 having to indicate evidence of any type of encroachment or possession must be on the survey, this is a concern in dealing with 300+ acres of surveys. This creates a lot more work and opens potential litigation issues. Bryan noted even though this has been published, it has had some revisions and asked for a course of action. Terry suggested members take time to review this A-E 7 and discuss further as an agenda time for the next meeting. r 2) Accepting Fence Corners as Best Available Evidence: Gary Dechant mentioned a land owner wants a corner removed in his county. The previous county surveyor saw no reason to move the corner and Gary sees no reason to move it either. However, he received a 23-page letter from an attorney saying they're not doing theirjob correctly, cited several statutes, and has several attorney general opinions. Essentially the attorney is challenging them on their methods for determining fence corners as best available evidence. Gary was concerned if there was something he wasn't aware of concerning accepting fence corners as best available evidence and after discussion members supported his methods and reasoning and asked him to keep the group informed on the outcome. 3) WLIP Program Draft Plan #3: 2016-2020: Bryan noted the WCSA received only one comment from the membership and he submitted the letter to the WLIC. Brenda noted 52 counties applied for WLIP funding for PLSS work (Benchmark 4). 4) WLIC and the Survey Grade Definition: Bryan said the Survey Grade Definition Committee put a lot of work into defining the definition and reviewed the comments received by the WLIC and felt it should not be changed. Rob Merry recommended to not reference accuracy. 5) November meeting date conflict: Due to the WSLS seminar on Nov. 4th, the group moved the next meeting date to Oct. 28th K. Meeting adjourned at 1:30 pm on a motion by Peter Kuen and second by Gary Dechant. Motion carried. w