Recovery for poor marks.

[+beatnik]

I've been finding a lot more benchmarks lately. Mostly on out of town trips. A lot of stopping at old city halls along my route or while I'm at lunch in another town.

 

For the most part I only submit 'official' recovery reports on marks that have not been recovered in 30+ years. I submitted one destroyed report on a water tower that I saw demolished myself back in 1992. But I refrain from posting destroyed unless I know for sure.

 

Today I was in Hugo, OK. They had many good marks in the town mostly set in buildings around 33 or 34. Most of them were recovered in 1986. The only one that I searched for that was not recovered in 86 appears to be gone. Since I don't know the history of the building I'm not going to report that one to the NGS website.

 

EK0533 was a concrete base mounted mark near the railroad tracks. The concrete base was leaning over in it's hole when we arrived. I grabbed the base and you could actually lift the whole thing out of the ground. I reset the base upright and level in it's hole. As best as I could anyway.

 

So the question is should I report this to the NGS as 'Poor, disturbed, mutilated, requires maintenance' since base is unstable and most likely no longer accurate due to it being knocked over? Or would it be better served to not report the mark.

 

beatnik

[mjvo321]

If you found the benchmark and it was leaning over it has been "disturbed" and should be reported as such - by putting it back "in place" someone may think that it still ma be in it's original condition.

[survey tech]

It will probably make no difference whether you report it or not, because ever since the severe budget cutbacks that began during the Reagan administration, the NGS has not had sufficient funding to actively maintain the entire nationwide control network. The existing markers are basically on their own now, which is why its particularly important to try to preserve them. Strange as it may seem, despite your good intentions, its actually not advisable to re-level a marker and pack the dirt back in around it so it looks like it was never hit. A surveyor new to the area may be fooled into thinking the point is still perfectly in place, resulting in errors in his work. The best thing you can do in such a case is to inform a local surveyor, or county surveyor where there is one, of what you have discovered, and let them reset or replace it precisely.

[+beatnik]

quote:

---

Strange as it may seem, despite your good intentions, its actually not advisable to re-level a marker and pack the dirt back in around it so it looks like it was never hit. A surveyor new to the area may be fooled into thinking the point is still perfectly in place, resulting in errors in his work.

---

 

It is still very obvious the mark is in poor shape. I righted the concrete base but did not secure it. Mainly for fear it would grow legs and walk off in it's condition. There is still a 1/2" gap around the base and it is very wobbly. In fact it is still leaning at a small angle.

 

I think I will still report it just to be on the safe side. Although like you said it is unlikely that it would be re-mounted.

 

beatnik