Current SENSLA Officers 2023

PRESIDENT: TERM 

WILLIAM KNIGHT LS-566 (2023) 

PRESIDENT‐ELECT: 

JON CARRELL LS-693 (2023) 

PAST PRESIDENT: 

EVAN JASNOWSKI LS-776 (2023) 

SECRETARY/TREASURER: 

MIKE SMITH LS-565 (2023-2024) 

BOARD MEMBER: 

JEREMY BENDER LS-691 (2022‐2023) 

BRIAN HAVERKAMP LS-787 (2022‐2023)  

KYLE CATT LS-609 (2023‐2024)

BRIAN YENTES LS-829 (2023‐2024)

P.S.A.N. REPRESENTATIVE:  DENNY WHITFIELD LS-449 (2023)

Spring Seminar 2023

Professional Development Series 2023

2023 Spring Seminar Brochure/Registration Form (pdf)

Spring Seminar

March 18, 2023
8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Lincoln Firefighter's Reception Hall
241 Victory Lane
Lincoln, NE 68528

Link to Google Maps

Topics: - Foundations, Firsts, and Challenges

Featuring:

Gene Thomsen & Jerry Penry 

Schedule:

8:00 - Registration
8:25 - President’s Welcome
8:30-9:25 - Session 1 Begins
9:25-9:35 - Break - Refreshments
9:35-10:25 - Session 1 Continues
10:25-10:35 - Break - Refreshments
10:35-11:25 - Session 2
11:25-11:35 - Break - Refreshments
11:35 -12:30 - Session 2 Continues
12:30-12:45 - Business Meeting

Business Meeting Agenda

1. Minutes
2. Treasurer’s Report
3. Old Business
4. New Business
5. Adjourn

Speakers

Gene Thomsen - 

Gene Thomsen is a lifelong resident of Nebraska who grew up on a farm between Fairmont and Exeter. He attended Kearney State College and graduated from Southeast Community College with an Associate’s Degree in the Civil Engineering & Surveying program in 1972. Gene first worked in private practice before joining the Nebraska Department of Road’s Design Division, where he worked for 47 years and retired in 2020. He has been a Registered Land Surveyor in Nebraska since 1983 and became a Deputy State Surveyor in 1987. His interest in surveying history has inspired him to write articles for the Professional Surveyors Association of Nebraska newsletter and the “Nebraska History” magazine published by the Nebraska State Historical Society. He has given numerous presentations about survey history and survey problems to many groups over the years.

Jerry Penry - 

Jerry Penry grew up in rural northern Nebraska near the town of Atkinson. He graduated from Southeast Community College in Milford in 1985 in the Surveying and Drafting program. Then he worked for 13 years for several private engineering companies in Lincoln. He then worked for Lancaster County Engineering for 24 years, managing the survey division in both the field and the office. In 2021, he became a Deputy State Surveyor. He began working at the Nebraska State Surveyor’s office, where he is presently employed. Jerry became a Registered Land Surveyor in Nebraska in 1994 and South Dakota in 2012. He has authored many articles on surveying, presented seminars in several states as a conference speaker, and led remonumentation projects across the state.

Seminar Topics - 

• Some of the earliest surveys performed in eastern Nebraska primarily along the Missouri River and how the Public Land Surveys were initially begun.
• Details of the survey and resurvey of the Base Line between Nebraska and Kansas and the political environment that existed to choose the first surveyors.
• Special emphasis will be given on the state’s first permanent monument - the Cast Iron Monument, including several remonumentation projects that have occurred at this site since the monument was first placed nearly 170 years ago.
• An examination will show the difficulties in having the shifting Missouri River boundary between adjacent states and how various situations have been handled including legal battles. The channelization of the river and the early topographic surveys performed by the Missouri River Commission in the late 1800’s will explain how the river boundary eventually came to be permanently fixed.
• Several early instruments will be on display of the type used to determine the precise latitude to start the Base Line and the type needed to correctly survey this curved line. (Dave Hoffart)