2017 Issue

63 3. Typically, by the time the City gets around to replacing a road, the subdivisions are well established and any potential survey errors have been resolved. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. Thanks, ------------------------- City Engineer I was flabbergasted! Needless to say, it was very disappointing to read this answer. I reviewed the City Code and Standards and saw that they indicated the use and perpetuation of street monuments as well as PLSS corners. In fact, the City Engineer later told me that this monument replacement/removal scheme “was not a City Policy per se, but it was a practice for a time.” I thought about it for a few days and sent the following email: Mr. ------------ I am sorry to hear your reasons for what seems to be a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable injury or harm to persons, property or both. First, I believe you are mistaken in the meaning of 17-23-17, as you left out the last 8 words from the line you quoted: (d) …the distance and course of all lines traced or established, giving the basis of bearing and the distance and course to two or more section corners or quarter corners, including township and range, or to identified monuments within a recorded subdivision; The surveys of the properties in the subdivision can and should be tied to the monuments set at the time the subdivision was created. See attached Subdivision plat for the monument in question. Second, if you are having problems with the mon- uments breaking down, that should be an item in your asset management plan. If the monuments are built in accordance with your standard drawing sheet 2 there should not be any problem with frost pushing them out of the ground. They should be similar to your maintenance of water valves. I have lived in this subdivision for 15 years and I have not seen any problems with the ring and collar mon- ument covers in this area, so I suspect that this second reason is just an excuse to cover up poor planning of asset management, or lack of proper inspection during construction. This brings up another question - when you go out every year for these broken monument covers, do you remove them and replace them with new ring and collar covers, or do you simply remove the monuments altogether? Third, your last reason shows an ignorance of boundary law and an inadequate knowledge of the facts to make a competent evaluation of the subject matter. Every time there is a change in ownership there is a potential for conflict that could cause high costs to your citizens of both a finan- cial and time commitment, when it goes to court. By the time the city gets around to repairing the