Liaison Division

GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Re.:     TSPS Texas General Land Office Liaison Second Quarterly Report

I talked to Joan Kilpatrick, Ben Thomson, and Bill O’Hara in the surveying division of the General Land Office over the last month and was able to gather the following information to report.

1.                  Ben Thomson has officially retired and has moved back to his home in Junction, Texas.  He says he will be doing mostly consulting work in land surveying and engineering.  He will continue to teach courses and is always willing to talk surveying with anyone.  He has contributed so much to the surveying profession over his tenure at the General Land Office and will be missed.

2.                  The Energy, Surveying and Legal divisions of the agency has been busy with the oil and gas activities all around the state.

3.                  The Veteran’s Land Board has seen a steep increase in the number of applications for land purchases through the land program since the application process went on-line.

4.                  The Land Commissioner announce on April 9^th, 2008, that the Christmas Mountains are open to hikers and campers for the first time.

5.                  The School Land Board meets every other Tuesday in the Stphen F. Austin building in Austin at 10:00 AM.  They typically last an hour.

This concludes my report for the board on the Texas General Land Office.

Wm. Davey Edwards, state director and GLO Liaison

GEOGRAPHIC INFO SYSTEMS
 

REAL ESTATE DIVISION OF THE STATE BAR
 

REGISTRATION PRACTICES-TBPLS

TxDOT
 

Since our last report the Standing Committee on Surveying (SCOS) has held meetings on February 20, 2008 at the Camp Hubbard TxDOT campus.

This meeting was to finalize the TxDOT Surveyors Conference to be held March 25 & 26 at the Omni South Point. With District Survey Coordinator Workshop being held on March 27.

March 25 & 26 the Conference was held with Pat Smith giving an update on TSPS and TBPLS plus the results of our Legislative efforts. Garey Gilley giving a report on the Denton-Tarrant County Line Results and Why the Courts ruled the way they did. Coleen Johnson and Mike Hatcher giving a report on the Lump Sum contract with Right-of-Way Division to survey the 400 +/- miles of the South Orient Railroad from just south of Coleman to Presidio. Cris Freeman and Tim Jackson gave a report on the use of Lidar scanning. With a tour of the General Land Office being conducted. Then in conclusion there were several TxDOT related courses.

Then on March 27 the 2008 District Survey Coordinator Workshop was held with the following subjects discussed.

• ROW Utility / Electronic Mapping Standards (Jesse Cooper)

• ROW map scanning / FileNet EDMS  (Jesse Cooper / Darryl Zercher)

• Update on WORMS (Dean Wilkerson)

• Survey Software Status Report (Darryl Zercher)

• New survey monument types (Steve Schmidt)

• Circle targets for Photogrammetry (Jonathan Martin)

• Multi-district aerial flights (Mark Eder)

• Survey Contract Template for Attachment C (Ivor Walker)

• Surveyor Safety on the Roadway – documented guidelines / traffic control plans (Jesse Cooper / Ivor Walker)

• Coordination between schematic development and ROW mapping (Marcy Saenz)

1)           Next Meeting:  May 7, 2008 (8:00 am start time)

Respectfully submitted

John F. Pierce, TSPS liaison to TxDOT SCOS
 

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