Rebar mangled by mower

[SARCASM]A letter yes, they need a good laugh.

You could sent them a time stamped video of their destruction of the monument with no result you would find satisfaction in.

They are not to blame and stand behind the right to clear their easements with whatever force necessary and are never responsible for any destruction to private property.
[/SARCASM]

😉

I agree that writing the power company is a waste of time. In fact, they may ask you to pay for the damage to their mower.

Why are you leaving your irons sticking up where a mower can get them?

With my luck it would be me receiving a letter and invoice from the power company expecting me to reimburse them for a new tire and downtime associated with ruining a perfectly good tire.

NCSpiralGuy, post: 408134, member: 12287 wrote: The corner post had a pipe at its base, which I determined was not the corner because its distance from another corner was wrong.

Then why the worry. It's just a piece of metal in ground right?

^Because it may be evidence of an old boundary. I'm going to get the positions of the other ends of the split rails (not today, my data collector is on the way back from a software upgrade, and there's still snow on the ground) and put the iron with just 2 cm showing.

NCSpiralGuy, post: 408167, member: 12287 wrote: ^Because it may be evidence of an old boundary. I'm going to get the positions of the other ends of the split rails (not today, my data collector is on the way back from a software upgrade, and there's still snow on the ground) and put the iron with just 2 cm showing.

"still snow on the ground"
sorry, had to chuckle at that one 😎

NCSpiralGuy, post: 408167, member: 12287 wrote: ....and put the iron with just 2 cm showing

You know that a mower is coming. Drive those suckers flush.

I hear that mower coming, coming 'round the bend, I've been recovering bent rebars since I don't know when.

I only leave stuff sticking up if it's back in the woods.

Well most of the site is back in the woods, and I have to take a private gravel road to get there. I saw a survey crew today, but it was next to the main road, which was cleared. And I didn't get my data collector until I got back from shopping after sunset. The UPS driver had left it in the mailbox because he didn't think he could get back to the road after leaving it on the doorstep.

Even if you "proved" they destroyed the monument, they can claim ignorance that it was there. They aren't surveyors, and they aren't obliged to run a metal detector over everything they intend to mow. Unless it was well-guarded, and some kind of sign saying that there is a property corner there. Were they trespassing in order to mow over the property pin? Regardless, I think only the owners could go after them for destroying "their" property.

As said, it's always a good idea to set your corner monuments in a permanent nature where things like mower blades can't get them. If it's in the middle of a plowed farm, you want to go deep enough so the machinery can't plow it up.

In MD, I have heard it is illegal to destroy state survey monuments and carries a fine of a few thousand dollars (under the condition the state was not notified I think). Does the law stop destruction of the monuments from happening (and do the offenders actually get fined)?

Well, I've been on job sites where construction destroyed state survey monuments, I have no idea if fines were ever levied.

Mowers are pussy cats compared to what a hydroaxe will do to a primary aluminum monument, set flush or not. Couple years ago recovered a section corner (or what was left of it) right after one of our power company clearing contractors got done with it. Called the power company out to have a look and straight to my face they tell me it wasn't them despite the hydroaxe tracks right over the top of the thing and fresh shards of aluminium and carsonite scattered in the mud.

John, post: 408356, member: 791 wrote: In MD, I have heard it is illegal to destroy state survey monuments and carries a fine of a few thousand dollars (under the condition the state was not notified I think). Does the law stop destruction of the monuments from happening (and do the offenders actually get fined)?

Well, I've been on job sites where construction destroyed state survey monuments, I have no idea if fines were ever levied.

It's very hard to prove, if you didn't actually see the monument get destroyed. But they could be charged. I've seen some federal marks get charged. Sometimes someone is landscaping and you see machinery around, and then you one day you see a mark mangled, and when you confront them they admit it.

But for private property, I would think the property owner is the best person to go after them, especially if they paid for a survey.

One of my least favorite things to find is what used to be a USGS monument with brass cap set in a nice concrete base up about 12 inches. The key phrase being "used to be". I can only imagine what it sounded like when the Bush Hog was whacking on it.

I should have said that the ground was still frozen. It's thawed now, so I went out with the GPS system and the coordinates, but the data collector didn't recognize the GPS receiver. I'm going to talk with the guy at eGPS about reconfiguring it.

In North Carolina east of the mountains, we get maybe one snowstorm a year, and the whole city (or boonie) shuts down. It's not like Buffalo.