2017 Issue

62 T his last summer, Syracuse City finally started some road recon- struction in my neighborhood. We had lived there for about 16 years and most of the roads were fine, but the sections where everyone entered the subdivision were showing ma- jor wear with constant potholes and deterioration of full sections of road- way. The cross street just south of our cul-de-sac went through a complete reconstruction, including the replace- ment of the base courses. Of course it was a mess and in- convenient, but eventually, they demolished the manhole covers and other util- ities’ boxes so they could lay the pavement. After the pavement was in place, they began to saw, cut and dig up the utilities so they could raise and pour collars for the manhole lids and other utility covers. As I drove by the inter- section just southeast of my home one day, I noticed that the contractor had raised every cover in the inter- section except for the centerline monument ring and lid. It just so happens that I know the City Engineer — he lives in my neighbor- hood and we have been in the same congregation for the last 10 years. So, when Sunday came around, I spoke with him personally and raised the question. He assured me that the con- tractor was supposed to restore every- thing in the intersection, but that he would check on it. Then, as a second thought, he said that they were having a lot of problems with the monuments being pushed up and breaking down, creating the problems. I said that this monument was in a ring and lid and there had been no visible movement with it as I drove by it every day. I waited a week or two and received no report, so I went on the city website and used their contact email system to send a note asking if the city engineer had a chance to check into the matter. A week or two later I received the following email from one of his associates: Thanks for your inquiry on the survey monument at 3300 South and 930 West. The only survey monuments we replace are the county mon- uments on section/quarter corners. Below are a couple reasons we do not replace any other monuments: 1. Utah code 17-23-17 requires any survey to be tied to two or more section or quarter corners. The internal street monuments are nice to reference to, but we cannot justify the cost to the taxpay- ers to replace and maintain them when surveys must be tied to the section monu- ments anyway. 2. We have too many issues with the collars on the monuments breaking and they become maintenance problems. We have several every year we have to go out and remove because the collars do not hold up. M onument G ames Troubles in Syracuse City (the Gateway to Antelope Island) Brad Mortensen