I have committed to pay my employee his regular pay. We have no active work (except for a one day monitoring survey every other week), waiting on several DOT and USACE projects to be approved. I do have a large survey to do in the northern plains, but that is not somewhere I want to be until May or later due to weather?ÿ
So my idea for next week is to occupy some benchmarks for the GPS on benchmarks program. It is always hard to find time to do that, especially when we are busy (which is almost always). A four hour occupation uses up most of the day with travel, etc.?ÿ
So, I would like to suggest that if you are not completely cutting off your employees, get them out there to occupy benchmarks.?ÿ
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/GPSonBM/recover.shtml
and the web map application...
https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6093dd81e9e94f7a9062e2fe5fb2f7f5
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For those in States under emergency orders, make sure the crew knows how to explain the connection to "essential services".?ÿ
Be safe, Tom?ÿ
Have a project where there has been some coordination with a couple of DOT engineers/surveyors.?ÿ Sent them an email early this morning asking for some information.?ÿ Within a minute I had an automatic reply from each telling me they were working from home and would get back to me whenever they happened to find my message.?ÿ Fortunately, one of them just sent me a message saying he would get the information to me whenever he finally is able to return to his office.
May get boxed in soon.?ÿ Counties to the northeast and east have issued stay at home orders for their citizens.?ÿ One had better be able to prove they need to be out and about.
Our county attorney made it clear at yesterday's county commission meeting that they would have to immediately build a new and far larger jail if they thought such an order could actually be enforced.?ÿ Passing a resolution and actually doing it are two very different things.?ÿ We are still free to roam if we need to.?ÿ We have once confirmed positive in our county thanks to a young lady returning home from Germany.?ÿ Her parents and one medical professional are the only ones who have been near her.?ÿ The test was run in a parking lot so as to not potentially contaminate the hospital.
Cook some burgers, drink a beer ask your people about what could improve your stuff, ask about their families.
Stay safe .
@holy-cow- this is (some of) the BS part of this- if a person can’t do their job from home, how are they working from home?
I understand some urban jurisdictions -- maybe NYC? -- have started doing aggressive enforcement of the orders, but from what I've heard most are only issuing warnings when they see egregiously non-compliant activity.
I live in farm country, and since ag is classified as essential activity not much had changed once you get outside the city limits.
People must eat.?ÿ The food doesn't merely appear out of thin air onto the shelves at the grocery store.?ÿ Production must go on every day.?ÿ Things must start in the season when they must start or there will be no production when there must be production.
Something to keep in mind.?ÿ That production is dependent on many things that are produced in cities and must be timely shipped to where they are essential.?ÿ The old quote about how a kingdom would be lost for the want of a horseshoe applies.?ÿ With modern technology the unfortunate side of things is that a $500,000 piece of farm equipment becomes useless without the correct electronics functioning properly or three being a means to replace them with those that will.
I consider myself essential, will be working on a ranch Monday.?ÿ
I get frustrated by the discussion of whether certain work is essential.
The guidelines should concern what CONTACT is essential.?ÿ There is a lot of non-essential but useful work that can be done with little or no contact with others. Other work is not possible without significant contact.
@bill93 I find it a little frustrating that I am free to work in my own attic by myself, but I can't work alone in the attic of a nonprofit I volunteer for because their safety rules won't allow it. I imagine it could be the same for a surveyor; a survey business owner could go in the woods and record GPS data on a benchmark by herself; no more dangerous than any other form of solitary exercise. But send a paid employee to do the same thing as a way to keep the employee employed, and it becomes a safety issue.
We're toast.?ÿ Governor has announced a State-wide stay-at-home order effective 12:01 a.m., Monday.?ÿ There is no realistic way to enforce it but if they want to set examples they have the ability to level fines up to $2500 for clearly defying the order.
We will still get some field work done, but, not enough, anytime soon.
staying home could save your life. This thing is bad, try to avoid it, if you catch it there may be insufficient hospital space, you could get triaged out.
It was recently theorized the 1918 influenza started in Kansas. It spread to an Army Camp from which it got shipped to France.
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@holy-cow We've been under "stay at home" for over a week. Surveying is a professional service and is still allowed to operate. You will though have a huge drop in access to courthouses.
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - IL, MO, AR, KS, MN, KY
The population per square mile averages under 28 people across the county.?ÿ Outside of the biggest city in the county and it's area that drops to something closer to 14.5.?ÿ We are socially distancing every day.?ÿ We don't have to worry much about running into anyone else by accident on the street or sidewalk.
If not for research that can only be done in the courthouses I could easily not need to be inside any other buildings to complete surveys.
That's a club membership we all really don't want to hold. 🙂 ?ÿ
You know it's serious when they have yellow caution tape strung around the perimeter of the playground equipment in the city park like it is a crime scene.
You know it's serious when the American Legion announces they are closing down completely.
You know it's serious when the smalltown grocery stores are moving to the Walmart gimmick of delivering to you in the parking lot.
You know it's serious when all but two of the local TV station on-air people are broadcasting from within their own homes.?ÿ The other two are living at the station.
You know it's serious when barber shops and hair salons have been officially shut down by the County Health Department.?ÿ Damm. Gonna be some ugly, hairy sights in our future.
You know it's serious when.............................(fill in the blank yourself)
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The TV Doctor panel last night said 80% of infections run from nothing to mild symptoms to a pretty rough 2 weeks at home. The other 20% need hospitalization. The U.S has nowhere near 20% of the population in hospital beds, rural counties have even less medical capacity, none in some cases. 20% hospitalization rate is huge, massive, far higher than the typical influenza strain. It's because we have no immunological defense for this one. There is no guarantee that your current young age or good health status will protect you. The dead victims are not just old people.
The typical influenza virus doesn't transmit as easily, the average infected person will pass it along to 1.5 to 1.75 other people (known as the Rnaught). Coronaviruses transmit better (the other known strains cause the typical mild cold symptoms). They think this one has an Rnaught of 2.5 to 3 hence the faster spread. Every day there are more infected people. So each time you go to the store your risk is higher. It is best to avoid contact with other people and disinfect all packaging you bring into your home. One doctor put blue tape down the middle of a table, disinfected the surface, put grocery bags on one side and carefully disinfect packages setting them on the clean side.
it sounds like an inconvenient pain in the nether region but it beats the heck out of catching this thing. If you turn out to be one of the 20% that need hospitalization maybe you'll wind up on the floor in an ER hallway, maybe you'll be triaged out of more advanced care, maybe you'll be DNR'd because every time they code someone the exposure of the medical staff skyrockets.
everytime you are tempted to break quarantine or go to the store more than than absolutely necessary, or not wash your hands, or touch your face, picture yourself gravely ill by yourself in a hospital hallway, no family, no friends, no help.