15 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article *Note how much longer mine is than Dan’s? How is it that he always gets the comparatively simple things?!? Anyway… About a year ago Mr. Zebra (names changed to avoid libel) contacted me for a partition of his uncle’s property so that he and his uncle, Mr. Rabbit, could be neighbors. In searching for existing boundary monuments, there was one, and only one, that Mr. Rabbit made a point of taking the crew to and stating that it was his property corner. The top of the rebar was several inches above ground and punched completely through the cap and pile of rocks supporting the rebar. All suspicious, especially when the distances to monuments on either side were compared and found to be significantly out when all the other found monument pairs were nearly right on. The rebar as found was further into the neighbor’s property than where I calculated it should have been. After talking with Mr. Rabbit (who insisted it had been set that way), the affected neighbor (who didn’t think he’d ever been to that area of the property so had no idea) and the other surveyor (who insisted he wouldn’t have set a monument in that condition and that his records indicated it was in the same place as the record dimensions) I concluded someone had moved the monument and chose to not hold it. The plat I prepared showed the found monument, the monument I had decided to set at the record location, and the 1,024-square-foot area between them as “contested” (see copy of detail sketch included on the plat). The crew set this monument on their first trip to the site, not for any particular reason; it’s just how things shook out. When they came back a few days later they attempted to use the monument as a setup check but couldn’t find it. After several minutes of fruitless searching, they found the rebar with a very beat up cap hiding under a pile of rocks nearby. After a call to our county surveyor for help brainstorming (as an aside, Lane County has an amazing county surveyor, Jay, who I’m so grateful to have as a resource) it was decided to reset the monument as far below grade as possible along with a “deep one” magnet underneath. I also called Mr. Zebra with a lecture about ORS 209.150 (the 1st Commandment . . . Thou shalt not disturb a survey monument). Mr. Zebra insisted that Mr. Rabbit hadn’t done anything except move the lathe indicating the location of the monument. When the crew returned to the site to set the monument again, they found the rebar they set a few days before now awkwardly wedged into a hole that looked just like it would after being enlarged to remove a rebar. That was removed and a fresh monument set. I also called Mr. Zebra with a lecture about ORS 209.150 (the 1th Commandment . . . Thou shalt not disturb a survey monument). Mr. Zebra insisted that Mr. Rabbit hadn’t done anything except move the lathe indicating the location of the monument. Renee's Experience
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=