Page 20 - NALS Traverse 50_2

Utility Marking in Tahoe someone from CalTrans, a full-frontal assault on the agency began
in earnest. CalTrans quickly said “Hey, it’s not us.” and went in
search of the vandal.
(How Not to Become a Meme) The culprits, in ascending order of complicity were the regional

gas company who planned on upgrading the gas main from Incline
By: Carl R. C.de Baca, PLS Village to Tahoe City along roughly 10 miles of the highway, who
hired a national engineering firm to design the new pipeline, who
The Facebook photos were pretty hilarious. A man and woman in turn hired a local surveying company to do a complete topo-
attending a Halloween party at a local restaurant, in costume. The graphic and utility survey of the route, and who in turn hired a
man had torn jeans hanging down a bit too low, a nasty, sweaty specialty firm to locate and mark the utilities.
ball cap, a ratty old orange safety vest, and a utility belt with a can
of marking paint, slung low on his hips. He was accompanied by
a woman wearing slabs of cardboard, fore and aft. The cardboard After the revelation that it was the gas company who had utterly
had a carefully drawn gridded pattern of bricks, not unlike the destroyed the harmony of the community, the angry virtual crowd
ornamental brick sidewalk upon which they were standing, and became focused on them. Fairly rapidly, the gas company sent
lying heavily across the cardboard bricks were thick, vertical paint up a crew to power-wash the sidewalk. Photos of that exercise
stripes, blue, orange and yellow. The couple was standing at the appeared on Facebook as well. It must be said that the paint
entrance to a popular Mexican eatery in Tahoe City. was water-soluble and would have come off after the first snow
storm, (of which Tahoe gets many), but that is irrelevant. The
point of all this brouhaha was public shaming for the guilty party
What gives, you ask? Well, these posted photos were the latest in and some sort of vindication for all and sundry in the otherwise
a two-week long barrage of images coming from the restaurant’s peaceful village. The power-washing took place right before Hal-
account. The earliest photo in that string was a long distance shot loween, so the final act in the melodrama was the restaurant’s
of a dumpy-looking guy with an orange vest and ball cap, head- costume party featuring the aforementioned couple, dressed as
ing back to his truck after painting utility markings up and down the sidewalk and the perp.
the brand-new ornamental brick sidewalk at the front of the taco
joint. He had defaced the sidewalk and was on his way down the
street before anyone inside could confront him. So, they did the I have to say, I am sorry that the utility marking company I
next best thing, snapped a picture of the colorful sidewalk and of contracted with was so over-zealous, but they sure did a good
the criminal walking away and posted the photos with a couple job, and that made my assignment of plotting the underground
paragraphs of invective that read like it came from truckers who utilities easier. My company and I managed to avoid culpability
had once been in the Navy. The next week as more and more throughout the ordeal. A couple of us talked about going to the
people posted photos of the ‘ruined’ sidewalk, an uproar ema- Halloween Party but that would have been just asking for trouble.
nated from the community. Assuming the offending party was

Editor’s Corner... continued from page 3
What a testimony to our profession!! Is this what the public thinks Hammer Toss: Enesto Ceros (49.62’ – closest to 50’)
of land surveyors? Is this what we want them to think of us??
Granted, I don’t believe it is the common opinion of land sur- Wing Ding: Colleen Sawyer (Less than a tenth for being online)
veyors but the fact that an element of the public does think this Pacing: Jennifer Wolf (Beat dad (Tim Wolf) by 1foot, and dad
way should give us some reason for reflection on the image we taught her who to pace that morning!)
portray. This image of land surveyors, developed by the advertiser,
was not just imagined, but was certainly produced from action of Range: Andrew Bustante (got within 1 foot as well)
land surveyors. We had another well attended lunch meeting at Lawry’s for a very
It might be time to step back and reflect upon our image and how informative presentation by Paul Burn, PLS and Erik Denman, PLS
from GCW. Their presentation was centered around a 25,000-acre
we want to be seen by others. As has been universally said, “You Record of Survey for SNWA on the Garnet Valley (which encom-
are deemed a professional by having that distinction bestowed passes the area of Apex to Lamb Blvd.
upon you by others, not by self determination.” This is an interest-
ing write-up for me. I spend so much time and effort through adver- Lastly to wrap up this Spring we had a fun social event at the Las
tising “promoting” the overall profession, that I don’t think this way Vegas Aviators Game. There were 77 of us that bought tickets
of thinking is still relevant? What are your thoughts? Please send me to the event, unfortunately we lost the game 11-10 to the Reno
Aces, but we all still had a blast! The highlight of the Knight was
an email with your thoughts about advertising! the assistance coaches were able to bring the recently awarded
th
Southern Chapter Update: Stanley Cup on to the field for the 7 inning stretch! It is great to
see the excitement the Cup has brought to Nevada and of course
As the editor and current President of the Southern Chapter, I Las Vegas! Las Vegas Golden Knights, 2023 Stanley Cup Champi-
want to blend the two into one column. The Springtime has been ons!
busy for the Southern Chapter! March of course was the NALS/
CLSA Conference which was well attended by our Southern Chap- As always, please send in your comments or articles so that what
ter members. we print is what you want to read! Articles for the next edition are
due on August 1 , please. Every man owes a part of his time and
st
April was the 45 Annual SNALS Picnic! We had a GREAT time money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man
th
with a little over 75 in attendance for the picnic. The Annual game has the moral right to withhold his support from an organization
winners were: that is striving to improve the conditions within his sphere!
– Theodore Roosevelt
18 The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023