Wednesday, November 27, 2013

S.E.N.L.S.A. WINTER SEMINAR
Saturday, December 14, 2013
College of Graduate Studies
Concordia University - CGS
570 Fallbrook Blvd., Suite 203
Lincoln, NE 68521

8:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.

Jerry Penry RLS 504
Lancaster County Engineering Department 

Jerry Penry is a licensed land surveyor in Nebraska and South Dakota who began his surveying career in 1984.  Originally from Atkinson, Jerry attended Southeast Community College in Milford and has remained in southeast Nebraska.  After employment for twelve years with various private surveying companies in Lincoln, Jerry has worked in the surveying department of Lancaster County Engineering since 1997.  He has nearly thirty articles published in professional magazines and has authored several books on topics including surveying, railroads, and World War II.  Jerry currently lives in Milford with his wife, Jenny. 

 
“The Alt Resurveys of Grant & Hooker Counties
 
Less than ten years after the completion of the surveys by the General Land Office in Nebraska, it became increasingly evident that widespread fraud had taken place by several U. S. Deputy Surveyors, particularly in the Sandhills region.  In many instances, the monuments had not been placed, topographic features were erroneous, and land locators had established homesteads away from where legal descriptions should have placed them.  Homesteaders appealed to Congress who had never dealt with such a widespread and unusual situation.  Finally, in 1894, funds were appropriated to completely resurvey 44 townships in Grant and Hooker counties.  The resurveys were mostly done by Willard W. Alt of Wahoo, Nebraska, who not only had to reestablish the section lines, but also had to maintain the bona fide rights of the land owners.  New parcels had to be created to define the locations of the homesteads where  the improvements already existed on the ground.  This topic describes the fraud that existed, the surveyors involved, and the methods used by Alt to perform the resurveys.

 
Robert Harvey’s “Instructions to County Surveyors” 100 Years Later”  
 
In 1914, Nebraska State Surveyor Robert Harvey published a book titled “Circular of Instructions to the County Surveyors of Nebraska”.  This book was an expanded version of a similar book published by Harvey in 1903 that described many aspects of surveying that had never previously been discussed in any textbook.  Harvey’s vast knowledge of determining the locations of lost and obliterated government corners as well as describing the “Short Cut Method” proved invaluable to Nebraska’s county surveyors who were searching for guidance.  The book quickly became known outside of Nebraska and was one of the most sought after publications by surveyors, landowners, lawyers, judges, and universities.  Even the General Land Office sought Harvey’s book to aid in the writing of their own future publications.  One hundred years has now passed since the issue of the instructions.  This topic will review Harvey’s publication and discuss the relevance of still finding the original government corners despite a century of advances in technology.

 

Monday, October 14, 2013


S.E.N.L.S.A. FALL SEMINAR
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Embassy Suites
Conference Center
Omaha - La Vista
12520 Westport Pkwy
La Vista, NE 68128

8:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.

Avoiding Boundary Problems
Clients, including attorneys, architects and engineers, rely on surveyors to provide quality and accurate boundary information.  In the process of conducting a survey, surveyors often unearth important issues related to the boundary that can help clients avoid inadvertent problems.  But do they present that information in a form that is meaningful?  Do they even present the information at all?  Surveyors need to provide complete and readily understood information about what they do, why they do it, and what it all means to the client, whether that is on a Land Title Survey or simply a boundary survey.  To do that, they need to be able to identify what is important to the client - and why - and then they need to find a way to communicate that information so the client can use the survey for its intended purpose and to its best benefit.  In this program we will explore these issues and more in an effort to raise awareness of the disconnections that can occur between surveyor and client, and how surveyors can be true consultants to their clients.

Gary R. Kent
The Schneider Corporation
8901 Otis Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46216
317-826-7134
gkent@schneidercorp.com

Gary Kent is in his 30th year with The Schneider Corporation, a surveying, GIS and consulting engineering firm based in Indianapolis and with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Ankeny, Iowa.  He is chair of the NSPS committee on the ALTA/ACSM Standards and is liaison to NSPS for the American Land Title Association. Gary is often called as an expert witness and he regularly presents programs across the country on a variety of topics including boundaries, survey standards and easements. He is a past-president of both ACSM and the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors. He taught Boundary Law, Legal Descriptions, Property Surveying and Land Survey Systems as an adjunct instructor for Purdue University in Indianapolis and West Lafayette from 1999 to 2006, and received Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Associate Faculty awards for his work there.  Gary has served on Indiana State Board of Registration for Professional Surveyors for 10 years.  He writes regular columns for The American Surveyor magazine and for NSPS News and Views.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013


S.E.N.L.S.A. SUMMER SEMINAR

Saturday, June 22, 2013
College of Graduate Studies
Concordia University - CGS
570 Fallbrook Blvd., Suite 203
Lincoln, NE 68521

8:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.

“SHARING GPS INFORMATION”

The seminar will consider sharing survey grade GPS geographic information with the public. Steve Cobb will present a brief review of datums, map projections and the Nebraska State Plane Coordinate system. Field techniques employed by local firms for GPS surveying will be presented along with demonstrations of selected programs and apps for phones and handheld devices.  Currently the Nebraska GIS Council has contacted the State Surveyor's Office and PSAN to discuss the possibilities of including survey information in GIS projects. An open discussion with the surveying community is necessary prior to any response. This seminar will provide such an opportunity for the SENLSA membership. Your participation is encouraged.

Steve Cobb RLS 412
Nebraska State Surveyor 
555 North Cotner Blvd.
Lincoln, NE  68505
402.471.2566

Mr. Cobb has over 35 years of experience as a land surveyor in both the public and private sectors. Mr. Cobb was registered to practice in Nebraska in 1982. Mr. Cobb came to the Nebraska State Surveyor’s Office in 1987, appointed a Deputy State Surveyor in 1989 and the State Surveyor in 2005.

Andrew Beavers
Google Earth Applications
Ehrhart Griffin & Associates
3552 Farnam Street
Omaha, NE  68131
402.551.0631

Erik Hubl
Lancaster County
GIS Mapping Division Head
444 Cherrycreek Road, Bldg C
Lincoln, NE  68528
402.441.7681

Erik J. Hubl has been with Lancaster County since 1989 when the first steps in developing a GPS based GIS project began at the Engineering Department. In 1995 he was hired as the Computer & GIS Records Supervisor for the Lancaster County Assessor / Register of Deeds Office. In 2007, he was hired as the GIS Manager for the County Engineering Department. Erik grew up in Red Cloud, Nebraska and studied Architecture and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He has a Surveyor in Training certification and is a Certified GIS Professional.

Eric Herbert
Sarpy County GIS Department
GIS Coordinator
1210 Golden Gate Drive
Papillion, NE  68046
402.593.1569

Eric Herbert joined Sarpy County in 2004 and has served as the coordinator since 2005.  Eric is the current NACO representative for the Nebraska GIS Council and is serving as the chair for the land records subcommittee.  Additionally, he has maintained an active role in the Nebraska GIS/LIS Association by serving on the association board and as the symposium conference chair for multiple conferences. 

The Sarpy County GIS department provides centralized mapping services for all county departments as well as the municipalities within the county.  Spatial data creation, coordinated addressing, cartographic production, and application development services are all provided. 

 

 

Monday, March 4, 2013


S.E.N.L.S.A. SPRING SEMINAR

Saturday, March 16, 2013
Embassy Suites
Conference Center
Omaha - La Vista
12520 Westport Pkwy
La Vista, NE 68128

8:30 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.

The UAS- Unmanned LiDAR Aerial Systems
 
This session will cover the Unmanned Aerial Systems that are impacting the market.  A brief history of drones will be covered followed by FAA regulations, flight plans, logistics, observed data, and accuracies. The Trimble X-100 will be presented and an actual flight will be shown using a simulator.
 
Frederick Bulger, P.E.
Trimble Navigation
Support Representative
5 Galaton Ct
Miamisburg, OH 45342
937-609-1160 cell
937-523-0340 fax

Fred Bulger has over 27 years of industry experience. He started out as civil engineer for a company in Chicago, Illinois. During his nine years for that company, he worked in varying capacities from a drafter to engineer to project engineer. He worked on notable projects such as the United Center and Comisky Park. Fred then teamed up with Trimble Navigation. Over the past 19 years, Fred has been a product manager, trainer and a support person. Fred has worked with and trained Surveyors and Engineers on Trimble equipment all across the United States.
 
In’s and Out’s of LiDAR RFPs

Nathan Watermeier
GIS Administrative Manager
Nebraska GIS Coordinator
Office of the CIO/NITC
501 South 14th Street Lincoln, Nebraska 68509
p: 402-471-3206
Nathan.Watermeier@Nebraska.gov
http://nitc.nebraska.gov/gisc

Nathan Watermeier is the GIS Coordinator for the State of Nebraska housed in the Office of the CIO. His role is working with the Nebraska Information Technology Commission’s GIS Council to advocate, manage and administer strategic plans, standards, and operational and technical policies as it relates to GIS. He will be coordinating shared service initiatives and administer an enterprise-wide state government environment and data sharing activities involving geospatial technologies, geodatabases and web services.

The majority of his career was spent at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where he was the Program Director for the Ohio Geospatial Program. He led the organization and various teams in the development of a geospatial and information systems infrastructure for supporting research and technology transfer activities. His specialized research and instructional training focused on GIS, remote sensing, mobile global positioning systems (GPS), and spatial analysis techniques on various agriculture, water management, and environmental topics. He is most noted for leading the development of a nation-wide geographic information data management system for type A influenza virus bio-security surveillance program for the USDA National Research Institute. Overall, his program accumulated over $10 million dollars in external support for technology development and education through USDA, National Science Foundation, NASA, and private funds. He spent time in private industry as a Director of Market Research and Site Selection for a commercial real estate developer locating and purchasing properties across the U.S. for senior living housing using geospatial technologies. He also served as the Dean of Communications, Information Technology, Construction, and Electronics Divisions at Southeast Community College. There he provided leadership for 13 academic programs with over 50 faculty including the information technologies, CADD, land survey, and civil engineering programs.