The Pennsylvania Surveyor - Winter 2020

Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors’ Newsletter

The

Winter 2020

Pennsylvania

Surveyor 2020 Conference Issue

Brian Yorkiewicz presenting Jonathan Tabas with President’s gavel.

Jonathan Tabas, PLS, PE Installed as PSLS President Inside this issue President’s Message ...... …….……....2 NSPS Director’s Report .. …...………..3 Scholarship Application Info………...7 Proposal regarding the Pennsylvania State Plane Coordinate System…….8 Purple Law…………………………………...9 2020 Conference Photos ………10-20 Sustaining Members …..………….…23 Member Article, “Guardian Angel”

by Scott Bowman…………………..…..25

Jonathan Tabas presenting Brian Yorkiewicz with Past President’s plaque.

Member Article, “Surveying Under Fire” by Eric Gladhill………………….26 PA One Call Trainings………………...27

From the President’s Pen‌.

Jonathan Tabas, PLS, PE

It's my pleasure to serve the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors as President for the coming year. As a member of our association for more than 35 years, I understand the legacy I've inherited and the obligation we all have to uphold the high ideals of the surveying profession.

I've been talking with members since late last year, encouraging them to get involved with our Society, and the response has been genuinely overwhelming. Similarly, I spoke with numerous attendees at the Conference in January, to listen to their thoughts about our profession and how PSLS can better serve their needs. These conversations have been very positive and encouraging. It is a great time to be a Land Surveyor! As a result, you will notice some new names and see younger faces in leadership positions throughout our organization. These improvements are necessary to keep our organization vibrant, relative and improving, building on the momentum we have developed during recent years.

Our Past President, Brian Yorkiewicz, PLS, led us through a stellar 2019, our 50th Anniversary, with celebratory events across the state. There was certainly no lack of opportunities to spend time with our fellow Surveyors, rafting, river cruising, golfing or enjoying dinner & entertainment. Thank you to all of the volunteers for their time and effort that made our celebration a success.

As I write, Robert Nargoski, PLS is leading the charge for HB 2101, changes to the PA Engineers, Land Surveyors & Geologists Registration Act. The bill is moving from Committee to the House of Representatives, and it is looking like we have the support, strength & good luck to see it signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf sometime later this year. We need to be vigilant, letting our Representatives & Senators know the Importance of this legislation. Please follow the instructions, at every step in the process, when you see a "Call for Action" in your email. Working together, we will make a difference!

One of our ongoing goals is increasing membership in our Society. Pete Brothers, PLS, is chair of the Membership Committee. The Committee has already met to discuss plans and programs for the coming year. Every current member of PSLS can help in this regard by being a cheerleader for PSLS! We all can be more welcoming to new members, not just those individuals with a license or pursuing their license, but to students, affiliates and sustaining members (e.g., the company you work for!). You will be hearing more about this - word of mouth is our best way to bring in new members and bring back members who have let their membership lapse. I joined PSLS 36 years ago when my friend, Steve Higgins, PLS, invited me to a meeting of the Bucks Chapter. It is so easy - just ask!

I'm looking forward to a great 2020 with you and PSLS. WE NEED YOU to get involved with your local chapter, volunteer and serve on committees - Education, Membership, Standards of Practice, Public Relations, Awards, Geospatial. Please feel free to contact me & share your thoughts, by email or phone. Together, we will make a difference!

Jonathan Tabas, PE, PLS, AcreSurvey@hotmail.com, 215-280-4489

PA NSPS Director’s Report Michael Given, PLS Certified Floodplain Surveyor Two emails were sent to the President and Secretary of each Chapter on February 12th and 20th, 2020 with information about the Certified Floodplain Surveyor program currently being offered in North Carolina and Tennessee. Each Chapter is to discuss the Certified Floodplain Surveyor program and take a vote to decide if Pennsylvania is in favor of offering the program. Each Chapter shall submit the number of Yeas and Nays to me for a statewide decision. To date we have only received the vote back from three Chapters. If your Chapter did not receive the information about the program, please contact Lori Elliott and she can forward the information.

Trig-Star Competition The Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors (PSLS) purchased the statewide sponsorship and therefore, the Trig-Star program is available at no cost to any High School in Pennsylvania. It’s not too late to get into your local High School and introduce the profession of surveying to the trigonometry class. The competition results must be submitted to the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) by May. If you would like to get involved in the Trig-Star program this year, please contact me and I will send you the 2019-20 Local Test, Competition packet with sample practice problems and information about the (NSPS) scholarship application. Additional information about Trig-Star is available at the website www.trig-star.com. Sample Tests are available under the Resources tab for practice.

NSPS Government Affairs Update As a new service to its members and affiliate state societies, NSPS is implementing a program to track state legislation in every state legislature in the United States. Using an on-line technology known as GovHawk, NSPS's government affairs consultants, John M. Palatiello & Associates, Inc. will provide reports to NSPS. The frequency and format of reports is being decided. The report will include a state-bystate summary of each bill, the sponsor, bill number, status, and a link to the text. The service will provide valuable information for the membership and individual state societies, either as a backstop for those states that already use some service or have it provided by a lobbyist, or would be the only such service for those states that do not currently have a system for tracking their state legislature. This also provides members who are active in legislation in their states with valuable information on what is happening in other states which may plant seeds of legislative ideas and "cross-pollination" of good ideas to emulate in their own state, as well as tracking threats that may begin trending across several states. The frequency and process for such reports needs to be determined.

NSPS News and Views Multibriefs Additional information about what NSPS is working on at the national level is available to each member and detailed in the NSPS News and Views Multibriefs emails.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information.

PA NSPS Director Mike Given, Mike.Given@williams.com

Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors Officers: Jonathan Tabas, PE, PLS, President Amy Hopkins, PLS, Vice-President-Elect Terry, McMillen, Jr., PLS, Vice President Robert Nargoski, PLS, Secretary Richard Shewman, PLS, Treasurer Brian Yorkiewicz, PLS, Past President

PSLS Mission The Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors, a statewide professional organization, exists for the purpose of supporting, improving and enhancing the profession, its members, and the practice of land surveying. To these ends, the critical work of the Socety focuses on providing education legislative involvement, enhancing the public awareness, and the promulgation of the ethics of the profession.

Michael Given, PLS, NSPS Director State Directors: Allegheny Heartlands Chapter

2020 Board Meeting Dates

Joseph Hood, PLS & James Mostoller, PLS Bucks Chapter Robert Snyder, PLS Delaware Valley Chapter Jason Bertzos, PLS & Karl Kriegh, PLS Harrisburg Chapter John Clark III , PLS & James Hartman, PLS Laurel Highlands Chapter

Giant Community Room 2300 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 10:00 a.m.

Randall Myers, PLS Lehigh Valley Chapter Stephen Ombalski, PLS & Arthur Swallow, PLS

March 13, 2020

Mid-State Chapter

May 29, 2020

David Archibald, PLS & Gregory Shufran, PLS

July 10, 2020

North Central Chapter K Robert Cunningham, PLS

September 11, 2020

Northeast Chapter

November 20, 2020

Glenn Johnson, PLS , Vincent Stranch, PLS Northwest Chapter Ryan Courtney, PLS Pocono Chapter Gregg Davis, PLS & William Senapedis, PLS Reading Chapter John Fuehrer, PLS & John Huck, PLS South Central Chapter Eric Gladhill, PLS & Timothy Rojahn, PLS Southwest Chapter Pete Brothers, PLS & Donald Housley, PLS Susquehanna Chapter Randall Hummer, PLS & Robert Weaver, PLS

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The Pennsylvania Surveyor is published by the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors (PSLS).

Articles or opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of PSLS, but are published as a service to its members, the general public, and for the betterment of the surveying profession. Articles may be reprinted with due credit given. We welcome submissions via e-mail in MS Word format. Please forward to psls@psls.org or call 717.441.6057.

Contact PSLS Phone: 717.441.6057 PSLS Office (Lori Elliott) — PSLS@psls.org Jonathan Tabas—PSLSPres@psls.org Amy Hopkins—PresidentElect@psls.org Terry McMillen, Jr. —VicePresident@psls.org Robert Nargoski—PSLSSec@psls.org Richard Shewman—Treasurer@psls.org Michael Given—NSPSDir@psls.org Brian Yorkiewicz—PastPresident@psls.org Shaheed Smith—Foundation@psls.org

PSLS Staff Lori Elliott, Executive Director Marcy Robey, Financial Coordinator Margaret Murphy, Conference Coordinator Shelly Dreese, Membership and Registrations Coordinator Jason Tobias , Technology Coordinator Kathy Clough, Receptionist

PSLS 2020 Officers

L to R: Michael Given, Brian Yorkiewicz, Amy Hopkins, Jonathan Tabas, Terry McMillen, Jr., Robert Nargoski Not pictured is Richard Shewman

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For immediate release: National Surveyors Week March 15-21, 2020 PA Society Celebrates Each year in March, the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), its members, and the respective professional surveyor organizations across the United States celebrate both the heritage and the contributions to society of one of the world’s oldest professions.

From the “rope stretchers” of ancient Egypt to current day users of GPS and Drones, Surveyors have been at the forefront of the latest in technology to gather, analyze, and interpret data about land.

During the week of March 15-21, 2020, Professional Surveyors are encouraged to make a special effort to share their story with their fellow citizens. Professional Surveyors are the only professionals who are involved in every land-related activity, from boundary line issues to providing precise and accurate guidance for the construction of “everything”. They are the only professionals who are licensed by the respective states with the charge of certifying as to the correct location of land boundaries.

PSLS encourages everyone to take time to get to know the Professional Surveyors in their community. Finding them is likely to be as simple as typing “professional surveyors in Pennsylvania”, looking in the phone book or visiting us at https:// www.psls.org/consumers.

To learn more about surveying and Professional Surveyors, contact PSLS, or the National Society of Professional Surveyors at http://www.nsps.us.com/.

The Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors is a statewide professional organization that supports the practice of land surveying. The society focuses on providing education, encouraging legislative involvement, enhancing public awareness, and promulgating ethics of the profession. www.psls.org 6

PLS FOUNDATION The Pennsylvania Land Surveyors’ Foundation, Inc. is offering academic scholarships to students who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree or associate degree in land surveying.

Go to https://www.psls.org/scholarship/ for more information and to download the application and recommendation forms or submit online.

Applications are due April 1, 2020 7

GEOSPATIAL COMMITTEE MEETING 11/15/19 MEETING FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINALIZING A MOTION The Geospatial Committee, at the direction of the Society Board of Directors, has solicited and reviewed Member input, considered NGS options, and corresponded with other stakeholders regarding the modernization of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and the implementation of the NGS 2022 datum. As necessitated by the modernization, and the understanding that all State Plane Coordinate Systems will be changing as a result, the Committee requests PSLS support for the following proposal regarding the Pennsylvania State Plane Coordinate System: That the PSLS would support the following request to NGS for the Pennsylvania State Plane Coordinate System: That we support the state-wide single-zone layer NGS has developed. This single-zone benefits users who prefer the simplest application of the modernized NSRS and applicable North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022 (NATRF2022) for producing state-plane coordinates.

That NGS develop a second state-wide layer that will produce 4 to 5 Zones required to meet the minimum distortion as acceptable for NGS’s design criteria according to the Procedures for Design and Modification of the State Plane Coordinate System of 2022 manual, i.e.

50 ppm for 90% of the zone population.

50 ppm for 50% of the total zone area.

50 ppm for 75% of the cities and towns based on location.

50 ppm for zone width perpendicular to the zone axis 50 ppm for topographic height range.

The design should always respect county boundaries. We also include in the request that NGS give consideration for, metro areas that cross county lines and counties that share geospatial data, that those applicable areas/counties be included in a common zone whenever possible. This second state-wide layer would benefit users who prefer a lower distortion application of the NSRS / NATRF2022 for producing state plane coordinates. It is understood that 50ppm is the lowest distortion that NGS will accept when providing the design efforts.

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That the Geospatial Committee on behalf of the Society will collaborate with the Stakeholder categories or entities to develop a unified proposal to NGS. The Committee is confident, based on correspondence, that the stakeholders will find this proposal acceptable. However, if the collaboration requires the proposal be slightly altered, the Committee is provided the authority to facilitate/ process the revisions.

This proposal does not prevent PSLS or other stakeholders from developing other mapping projections in the future (e.g. metro zones), but will allow NGS to invest all the necessary efforts to design two systems that will benefit both those users who desire ease of use, and those users who desire the lowest possible distortion.

Dave Butterfield motions that this proposal be submitted to the PSLS Board of Directors at the November 22 meeting. Motion Seconded by Don Groesser Motion approved by unanimous vote.

Meeting Attendees: Kreiger, Groesser, Butterbaugh, Hartman, Archibald, Warner, Yorkiewicz, Kimport

PURPLE LAW Please be reminded of the “purple law� , which means "No Trespassing". HB 1772 was signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf and is now in effect. While this is used for large parcels of land to discourage hunting, it can also be used for single family dwellings and other smaller properties. Purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property are: (A) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width; (B) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground nor more than five feet from the ground; and (C) placed at locations that are readily visible to a person approaching the property and no more than 100 feet apart.

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Donald Housley, PLS, Southwest Chapter Donald Housley Family

2018 Surveyor of the Year, Arthur Swallow, PLS, presenting 2019 Surveyor of the Year award to Donald Housley, PLS

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Thank you to sponsors, vendors, speakers, attendees. volunteers, board members, students, and staff who helped to make our 2020 conference a great success!

Congratulations to our new officers and award winners!

SAVE THE DATES FOR OUR 2021 CONFERENCE January 24-27, 2021, Hershey Lodge

NSPS President, Lisa Van Horn, and Les Van Horn speaking with Conference Chair, John Fuehrer

Ms. Van Horn’s extensive collection of surveyor prints.

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G. Windsor Tracy, President of the Delaware Valley Chapter, Chapter of the Year Arthur Swallow, President of the Lehigh Valley Chapter, Honorable Mention Chapter of the Year

Brian Yorkiewicz presenting President’s Award to Robert Nargoski

Surveyor of the Year Honorable Mentions: Cynthia Skoriak, Lehigh Valley Chapter Brian Zick, Pocono Chapter

Distinguished Service Awards: David Nowicki, Don Rife, Karl Kriegh, Jay Musselman 12

Bob Snyder, Awards Committee Chair

Seated from L to R: Brian Springer, Claudia Leu, Gerald Rusek III Standing from L to R: Matthew Bogue, Ayden Yoder, Jacob Hebel

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2020 Conference Photos…..Continued

Past Presidents, Randall Myers and Shaheed Smith

Conference Chair, John Fuehrer NSPS President, Lisa Van Horn

Keynote Speaker, Avish Parashar, getting “dinged” by Lisa Van Horn to change his story.

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Professional Auctioneer, Eric Zettlemoyer

Membership Chair, Karl Kriegh, recruiting new members.

PSLS staff playing “Jenga�

Student volunteers

Spouse activities

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Thank you 2020 Overall Conference Sponsor

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Thank you to our Conference Sponsors!

Badge Sponsor

Lunch Sponsor

Coffee Break Sponsors

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2020 Conference Vendors Thank you for your support!

Association of Professional Pipeline Surveyors Boyd Instrument & Supply Co., Inc. Canon/Jaru Copy Service Carlson Software Caron East, Inc. Civil & Environmental Consultants CivilTraining, LLC CT Consultants eSurveying LLC GPI Geospatial, Inc. Keystone Precision Solutions Klein Agency, LLC Kucera International, Inc. Leica Geosystems Maine Technical Source National Society of Professional Surveyors Nor East Mapping, Inc. Precision Laser & Instrument, Inc. Print-O-Stat Inc. PA Society of Land Surveyors PSLS Membership/ PSLS PAC Student Chapters: Penn State Wilkes-Barre and Pennsylvania College of Technology Surveying and Mapping, LLC The Underground Detective THG Geophysics, Ltd. Topcon Solutions Store 19

Overall Winner – Michael Housten – “Barnes Lane Development” Boundary Retracement 1st Place – James Savage – “Spring Hill Drive” 2nd Place – Grant Anderson – “Evelyn Bender Estate” 3rd Place – Joseph Hunt – “Robert Lamb” Subdivision 1st Place – Michael Housten – “Barnes Lane Development” 2nd Place – Grant Anderson – “Revocable Trust” 3rd Place – Bruce Rader – “Kline Minor Subdivision” Topographic 1st Place – James Savage – “Lansdale Cemetery” 2nd Place – Grant Anderson – “Kinsley Construction” ALTA/NSPS 1st Place – Grant Anderson – “Augusta Partners” 2nd Place – Michael Housten – “602 Chestnut Street” Specialty/Miscellaneous 1st Place – Michael Housten – “Agricultural Conservation Easement” 2nd Place – G. Windsor Tracy – “Ryerson Station State Park” 3rd Place – Benjamin Smith McRobie – “Water Main Downingtown, PA” 20

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SUSTAINING FIRM MEMBERS Thank you for your support!

Civil Training, LLC Attn: John Cooke 5300 Wellington Branch Drive, Suite 100 Gainesville, VA 20155 P: 732-859-8353 F: 732-377-5454 john.cooke@civiltraining.com www.civiltraining.com

Nor East Mapping, Inc. Attn: Ron Henry, CP PO Box 270 Kylertown, PA 16847-0270 P: 814-345-1167 F: 814-345-1176 noreastmapping@verizon.net www.noreastmapping.com

Cooper Aerial Surveys Attn: Pete Priestner 412 East Street Rd. Trevose, PA 19053 P: 800-229-2279 pete@cooperaerial.com www.cooperaerial.com

Precision Laser & Instrument, Inc. Attn: Robert J. Barth 85 11th Street Ambridge, PA 15003 P: 724-266-1600 F: 724-266-8161 rjb@laserinst.com www.laserinst.com

Keystone Precision Solutions Attn: George Allport, Jr. 1670 East Race Street Allentown, PA 18109 P: 610-266-2699 georgejr@keypre.com www.keypre.com

Rodriguez Consulting LLC Attn: David Spellman 1301 N. 2nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19122 P: 215-839-8087 dspellman@rodriguezconsulting.biz

Klein Agency, LLC Attn: Mark Amirault PO Box 219 Timonium, MD 21094 P: 410-832-7600 F: 410-832-1849 mamirault@eakagency.com www.kleinagencyllc.com

Steckbeck Engineering & Surveying, Inc. Attn: Jason E. Chernich, PLS 279 N. Zinns Mill Road Lebanon, PA 17042 P: 717-272-7110 jchernich@steckbeck.net

Maine Technical Source Attn: David Filipski 2634 James Street Syracuse, NY 13206 P: 800-322-5003 dfilipski@mainetechnical.com www.mainetechnical.com

Wetland Studies & Solutions, Inc. Attn: Eric Calladine 5300 Wellington Branch Dr., Suite 100 Gainesville, VA 20155 P: 703-679-5600 F: 703-697-5601 ecalladine@wetlandstusies.com www.wetlandstudies.com

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Guardian Angel

By Scott Bowman, PLS Thursday April 11th I left for State College to prepare for my land surveying exams the next day. I spent the night at the hotel worrying about the next day. 10 hours of test questions beginning at 8AM. I was to meet up with my wife Aileen and our good friends John and Cathy Swauger sometime on Saturday near or in Boston. After the stressful tests I got on the road and drove for a couple of hours before I found a place to eat and stay Friday night. I was a few hours closer to Boston. I got up the next day and hit the road around 6:30AM. Aileen, John and Cathy had spent the night near Hartford. I met up with them at their hotel and then Aileen and I followed John and Cathy into Boston. We spent Saturday afternoon at the Boston Marathon Expo. Afterwards we ate dinner at a great Italian restaurant. Sunday was spent driving to Hopkinton, where the marathon actually starts, and dining later that night with Mike and Doreen Hodak, also from Indiana. Everyone turned in kind of early since Aileen, John and Mike were going to be running 26.2 miles the next day.

We awoke Monday morning at 5:10AM. Aileen was constantly checking the weather report for the temperature. It was a cold, windy morning but going to be a sunny day in the low 50’s by the time the race would start (10:00AM). Aileen and John were in wave 3 which started at 10:40. Aileen and John boarded the bus to Hopkinton and Cathy and I walked around town on the Freedom Trail and then headed down to the finish line of the marathon. The four of us agreed to meet at the Starbucks after the race, which was a block away. With so many runners (27,000), it is easy to get lost. We signed up on our phones to receive text messages when Aileen and John crossed a certain point of the race so we knew when to expect them at the finish line.

After grabbing a drink at Starbucks we went over to the finish line. It was packed with people. The people with the best view were the ones who were on the railing next to the street. When we got there we were probably 4 or 5 people back from the railing. We were about 60 feet from the finish line. Cathy and I were having trouble seeing the runners due to the flags and the two trees blocking our view. I asked Cathy if she wanted to move with me down about 30 or so feet away from the finish line where the trees wouldn’t block our view. She said okay and just as we were going to move a woman in front of us said we could have her spot since her runner probably wasn’t going to be coming in before Aileen and John. She gave up her spot for us and moved to the side of us.

About two or three minutes later a blast so powerful knocked us immediately to the ground. I knew right away it was a bomb. No doubt in my mind. Immediately I went deaf in my right ear. As I laid there on top of Cathy another explosion occurred about 10 seconds later. I could barely hear Cathy say to me we have to get out of here. I remember saying that Aileen should be crossing right now and was afraid of what had happened to her. Cathy said we have to go. As we went walking away I turned to my right to look back and saw some gruesome things that I will not go into detail about. It turns out we were only 22 feet away from the blast. Had that woman not given up her spot for us, we would have been standing right next to the bomb.

After about 20 minutes or longer standing by the Starbucks, Aileen spotted us and came over to us and gave us both big hugs. She asked where John was. We said that he’s probably still out on the course.

It turns out that Aileen was ½ mile from finishing the marathon when the first explosion happened. John was a ½ mile behind her. She thought it was a cannon blast but wasn’t sure. Then she heard the second blast and knew something was wrong. After the second blast the runners were told by officials the race was over. They were redirected back to the finishing area. John was also redirect to a hotel nearby and borrowed a cell phone to call us. We were able to reunite with him about an hour later.

As I finished writing this article Friday April 19th, the authorities had killed one of the suspects in a gun battle and the other was finally captured and is in critical condition. The authorities say these two brothers are terrorists from a Russian region near Chechnya. Hopefully justice will be served for the victims and their families. I am listed as one of 260 victims of the bombing.

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Surveying Under Fire

By Eric B. Gladhill, P.L.S.

Every surveyor has a story of being shot at in the line of their duties. Some of the stories sound fishy, like maybe there was someone shooting and an errant shot came near to the surveyor, or maybe the property owner was just shooting over their heads to scare them, but I only know a few surveyors who were actually the target with intent to injure or kill. One day in the summer of 2012 I was investigating some boundary evidence that our field crews had surveyed on a farm that was about to be bought by a private foundation to be turned over to the National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park. The one boundary adjoined a campground where they stabled and pastured horses that they used to give tours of the battlefield.

There was one corner in particular that was not found, but the crews had located a large tree with old barbed wire embedded into its trunk. I needed to look around for some other evidence.

As I walked along the line adjacent to the campground, I stepped into the tree line to look for other evidence of old wire grown into the trees. I heard gunshots which sounded like they were in the direction of the corner where I intended to go. It was pretty clear that the shots emanated from the campground property and not the farm that was being surveyed. The sounds of the gunfire seemed to be about two hundred yards in front of me (I always tend to think of distances in yards when it comes to shooting guns because target shooting is usually expressed in yards and not feet), so I wasn’t too concerned. It was summer so I assumed either someone was killing a varmint, such as a groundhog or snake. The shooting continued as I covered another one hundred yards and I began to think that someone was shooting targets, but I couldn’t understand why they would be doing that on the campground property where families were staying in campers and tents.

I suddenly heard what sounded like a bullet hitting some branches in the tree line which was about twenty-five feet to my right. As I went on guard and starting looking through the trees to see who was shooting and where this was coming from, another shot rang out as I heard a bullet hit some brush in front of me and whistle past my ear as only a tumbling bullet can sound. I had heard this while hunting, but never this close! I hit the dirt and yelled that there were people “up here.” There were a few more shots and I hollered as loud as I could in the direction of the shooter. When the shooting stopped, I walked quickly toward my vehicle and drove to the campground store and office. I told the ladies who were working there of my recent experience to alert them of a shooter on their property. They said that the owner lived back in that corner of the property and that he had built a shooting range where the local police were invited to come and practice with their handguns. They called him on the radio and told him of my report; he replied that he would be there in a few minutes.

When the owner arrived on a golf cart, I could see that he dressed like a western sheriff. He introduced himself and allowed me to do the same. When I told him of my duties in surveying the property next to his and reminded him that we had mailed a letter to inform them of the survey, he thought for a minute and said, “Yeah, I got your letter, but you said you would call me to let me know when you were coming out.” I said, “No, the letter informed you of the survey that would be performed and it stated that you could call us if you had any questions or wished to meet our crew on the site.” He then told me that he was a retired sheriff and had constructed a shooting range for the local police to use. He assured me that the bullet that I had heard did not come from his shooting range; in fact, he was very doubtful of the story that I was telling him, not even accepting the fact that I had heard a bullet. He told me about how the backstop was all dirt and that it was fifteen feet high, etc. I asked if someone had been shooting there in the past thirty minutes and he confirmed that there was someone back there shooting.

Then he offered to show me his range. I looked at the backstop and it was built for safety, just as he said. I don’t know how the bullets got to where I was, but my conclusion was that the shooter (who had left by now) fired in the wrong direction and not directly into the backstop. He allowed me to walk through his patch of woods into the corner that I wanted to investigate. There were other targets that I saw back in the woods and felt that the shooter was probably off of the range and shooting at random targets. We left with a disagreement about what had happened, but I was just happy that my life was spared and I didn’t get shot!

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