Category: PILLAR Talk

PILLAR demonstrated its commitment to environmental issues by sponsoring a storm water program for the Leadership Roanoke Valley.

Mark Boenke, President of PILLAR, agreed to sponsor the event that educated Roanoke citizens about the operations and maintenance of stormwater runoff.

The event was based around the following objectives:

• Recognize the challenges that the Roanoke-area has with storm water infrastructure
• Identify the roles government, citizens and businesses have in storm water management
• Apply mitigation strategies in attendees’ personal and professional spheres of influence

Here are several facts about Roanoke’s storm water runoff system:

• 774 storm drain outfalls in the city empty runoff (trash, oil, sediment makes its way into streams) directly into streams
• A 1,600 square-foot home sheds almost 1,000 gallons of water in a 1” rainfall
• The annual runoff from one acre of a paved parking lot generates the same amount as 36 acres of forest or 20 acres of grassland
• More than 1,400 tons of debris was removed from the city’s streets in 2017

Properly managing water runoff to protect the environment is one area that PILLAR is particularly passionate about. The company’s staff regularly helps its clients lengthen the life of storm water systems for highways, municipalities and public-private partnership projects.

Leadership Roanoke Valley was created in 1983 to foster community leadership in the region. The interactive 10-month program encourages participants to use creative ideas and approaches to address business and community issues.

 
Since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the science behind mapping and surveying has continuously evolved. In those days, high tech meant a brass compass placed on a staff, or maybe a fixed leg tripod combined with a wooden stick or steel chain. This equipment had its limitations regardless of how careful the surveyor was. To put this into perspective, Mr. Jefferson would have measured an angle to the nearest degree with a device that was controlled by the magnetic forces of the earth, and horizontal distance typically to the nearest foot with a 16.5′ wood pole. To put in laymen’s terms, “there is some slop in them measurements.”

Today, a digital total station used by surveyors can measure an angle to the nearest 1 second of arc (60 seconds of arc in 1 minute and 60 minutes of arc in 1 degree), and distance to the nearest one thousandth of a foot. It’s like comparing calculating an equation using either your fingers or an HP48GX graphing calculator. If you told Jefferson you had equipment that could measure to that accuracy without even stretching a chain between two points, he and the other elders would have probably tied you to a post while they lit it on fire.

While surveying accuracy has dramatically improved, what hasn’t changed is the purpose behind mapping and surveying which is to identify a particular point on the ground. Additionally, regardless of what year it is – 1818, 1918 or 2018, – the same issues persist: missing monuments, title gaps and overlaps, encroachments, possession disputes, vague legal descriptions and on and on. A land owner usually doesn’t grasp how the science behind mapping and surveying relates to its purpose. Their sole understanding is confined within the little blue document they have in their hand that describes what they own (their deed). As a surveyor, it feels as though you hear the words “but my deed says” from clients no less than a million times during your career.

Recently, I heard these very words from a client who contracted PILLAR to retrace a boundary line along the east side of his 95-acre tract in some fairly rugged terrain. The title description was based on a physical survey performed in 1850 – yes folks, I said the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty (as written in this particular deed). He hired Pillar to do the survey because he did not agree with the boundary line previously establish by another firm.

All physical monuments as referenced in the description were destroyed over the last 167 years, leaving only two non-original markers at each end of the line in question. This client could not understand why the courses and distances didn’t match exactly what was stated in his deed. When physical monuments are missing, a surveyor must rely on these courses and distances to re-establish that boundary line. This is where the relative precision and accuracy of the equipment used when the original survey was performed must be considered.

If an original measurement was recorded as 45 poles between two points (remember 1 pole = 16.5′) and a modern surveyor produces a field measurement of 751.65′ between the same two points, try to consider the fact that the original surveyor was flipping a stick end-to-end up that mountain to produce a measurement.

After all, who knows what will be considered accurate and precise in the year 2184? I might just be the one who would tie you to a post…

Have you seen the ‘what I do’ meme? What better way to explain Geographic Information Systems (GIS) than debunking all the perceptions?

What our friends think GIS is:
Often times, all our friends remember is that it has something to do with maps and maybe phones.

What our moms think GIS is:
Maybe it’s due to selective hearing, but many of our moms think we make GPS.

What the general public thinks GIS is:
Nearly 20 years ago it was a lot worse, but the general public thinks it has something to do with surveying. Not quite, but we have a division that can do that for you.

What our bosses think GIS is:
Although it would be cool, we don’t quite have matrix-like coding skills. We’re just glad they don’t want us to go into details and just let us keep doing awesome things.

What GIS professionals think GIS is:
We spend most of our days behind a screen, or three, because we keep way too many windows open at once.

What GIS really is:
All jokes aside, we focus on Geospatial Technology which is the backbone of Next Generation 9-1-1. Many people don’t spend much time wondering what happens when they call 9-1-1. Many assume the police, fire department and rescue units can locate us quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Localities throughout the nation are working to make the best of what they have in their budget to obtain a more up-to-date system and better data collecting capabilities.

During our years of working with localities, we have focused on addressing their GIS needs. These needs often support departments such as planning, commissioner of the revenue, parks and recreation, and public safety.

In recent years, public safety has gone from being the smallest consumer of GIS data to the main consumer of GIS data.

Now, many localities are now starting to move to Next Generation 9-1-1. GIS serves an important role in the current E 9-1-1 environment, but with the graduation to NG 9-1-1, GIS will become not just important, but critical.

We spend time talking to clients, attending seminars and conferences, and keeping up with the advancements of GIS and NG 9-1-1. Despite all of the new technology that comes with NG 9-1-1, most of the needs localities have are based on workflow and communication

Some people see a survey plat as an overpriced piece of paper but it’s not just a pretty picture. It represents hours spent reading moldy court records and digging through centuries of legal documents about a piece of land two people transferred back and forth….and back and forth. It represents the blood and sweat shed during days spent in the field in a seemingly endless search for property corners of the distant and not so distant past. Let’s not forget the hours spent compiling data, grumbling at field crew for busting a traverse (which mine never do by the way), interpreting deeds, head scratching, pencil throwing, and rants of profanity that all go into painting that “picture”.

You could compare a land surveyor’s plat to Joanna’s pieces of “Flair” in the movie Office Space. Do you just want to do the bare minimum, is it too much to ask for a few more pieces of “Flair” on your survey plat? A tie line to an adjoining monument used to help establish a boundary line, a crooked junky old fence that wiggles in and out along a boundary line, a creek, a witness marker to help me find a ½” tall iron rod in 2′ of leaf debris in the middle of the woods. Something!

Now I’m not saying that I’m the Rembrandt of the cartography world nor am I the Peter Messier of the land surveying profession, but I’d like to think that I paint a pretty good picture of what we find during the preparation of a survey. I do this not just for our clients benefit but also for the benefit of the “ME’s” of the future. To help the next poor guy that aspires to be a land surveyor find that ½” iron rod that was set in that pile of fence wire that just happens to be where the property corner was. Help them understand through your “art work” how in the world you came up with the opinion that you developed and felt comfortable enough to hang your professional hat on.

If you are a property owner and a surveyor is handing you the final product, take that plat, study it, reeeaaaaally look at it because if the picture is painted good enough you don’t have to be a surveyor or some attorney to understand it. And at the end of the day, this is in fact what you pay good money for. If you are new to the land surveying profession or a veteran in the game, paint that picture as complete as you can, channel that inner Bob Ross, and be proud of what you deliver. You may decide to wear just the bare minimum pieces of flair on your survey plats. Careful…you are just likely to get the same response that the Chotchkie’s manager got in Office space when the surveyors of the future are looking at your plats….