October, 2001

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AT CARBONDALE (SIUC) SURVEYING COURSE:
64 students have signed up for the Spring Semester surveying course, which is being held on weekends at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois. The course was designed for those who had the related science degree but need the 24 hours of surveying to meet the requirements to take the SIT exam. IPLSA member and SIUC Professor Roy R. (Skip) Frank, Jr., PLS is the instructor. IPLSA and the profession are indebted to Roy for his outstanding service to the education of future land surveyors.

IPLSA SEMINARS OFFERED:
The Northeast Chapter of IPLSA is hosting a 1-day seminar entitled Real Estate Law for The Surveyor: A One Day Seminar, presented by Mr. Richard F. Bales, Assistant Regional Counsel of the Chicago Title Insurance Company. It will be held on Friday October 5, 2001 at the Wilton Manor, 200 North Main St, Wheaton, Illinois. Watch for registration information.

The Little Egyptian Chapter of IPLSA is hosting a 1-day seminar and the 1st Annual Surveyor Olympics. The date of the seminar is Friday October 12, 2001 at the Players Island Theater, which is at the Players Island Casino in Metropolis and the Olympics will be held on Saturday October 13, 2001 at Fort Massac State Park in Metropolis. Milton Denny, PLS is presenting the seminar. Topics will be Buying or Selling an Engineering and/or Surveying Business and Antique Surveying Equipment and its effect on the Modern Survey.

Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee will certify the course for continuing education. For more information contact Shawnee Surveying at:
Phone: 618/658-6065 or
E-mail: shawnee4@midwest.net

IPLSA BOARD OF DIRECTIONS MEETING:
The board approved a dues increase for 2002. The increase will help get us out of the deficit that we have been experiencing over the past 4 years. Dues notices will be sent out in October and must be paid by December 31, 2001.

SIT-PLS REFRESHER COURSE OFFERED:
IPLSA will hosting a refresher course January 2002 for those wanting to prepare for the April 19-20, 2002 SIT/PLS examination. We need a minimum registration in order to hold the refresher course so please get the word out to anyone interested. Have them contact the IPLSA office at:
Phone: 217/498-8102 or
E-mail: mchurch245@aol.com

LAW BOOK UPDATE:
Those of you who have purchased the 2001 Illinois Compiled Statutes and Administrative Rules, please note: Waterways Section - 615 ILCS is not correct as published. The Illinois Department of Transportation was the state agency that was the authority over waterway activities. Several years ago this authority was transferred to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. A correct copy of this section can be obtained by contacting the IPLSA office.

IPLSA 2002 CONFERENCE:
Your IPLSA State office is working with the Northeast Chapter on the program for the upcoming 2002 conference, which will be held February 20-23, 2002 in Springfield. The 2002 conference will once again feature a plat contest, which was not part of the last conference. See the middle section of this newsletter for the preliminary program.

IPLSA 2003 CONFERENCE:
Your IPLSA State office is working with the East Central Chapter on the program for the 2003 conference. 2003 is the 75th anniversary of the IPLSA Charter. Anyone having a suggested presentation or subject of a presentation should contact the IPLSA office or Program Chairman Joe Hewkin, III, PLS at Sodemann & Associates, Phone: 217-352-7688 or
E-mail: jhewkin@sodemann.com.

HISTORIC SURVEY MARKER NAMED OLDEST STRUCTURE IN CHICAGO:
A marker constructed by the Office of the United States Surveyor General in 1838 indicating the Illinois-Indiana State Boundary is the designated as the oldest structure in Chicago. In a news report dated August 2, 2001 it is stated that the marker marks the re-survey of the original line that was established in 1833. Originally, both states were part of the Northwest Territory surrendered at the end of the Revolutionary War to the United States by England.

In 1988 the marker was rescued from a state of decay and moved almost 192 feet north of its original site with the help of Commonwealth Edison Company.

The marker is close to the State Line Generating Plan and can be found by taking 100th Street east from Ewing Avenue on Chicago's Southeast side into Calumet Park, turning right on Avenue G to the monument. Chicago's Commission on Landmarks plans to give preliminary landmark status to the marker. This status will preserve the monument indefinitely.

2001 TRIG STAR WINNER:
Tina Gallinati, of McHenry, Illinois was named the winner of the 2001 NSPS Trig-Star State of Illinois contest. Ms. Gallinati attends Grant Community High School in Fox Lake Illinois. She was awarded $250.00 from the IPLSA Foundation. George H. Barrett, Jr., PLS, Barrett Land Surveying, Cary, Illinois sponsored the local Trig-Star program. Carl J. Krause, Land Surveyor of Cullom, IL also sponsored a local program. IPLSA congratulates Ms. Gallinati and thanks IPLSA members Barrett and Krause for sponsoring local Trig-Star programs. Those interested in being a local sponsor should contact the IPLSA office.

ACSM/NSPS FALL MEETING:
The NSPS Great Lakes Regional Council meeting and the NSPS Board of Governors will be held in conjunction with Texas Society of Professional Surveyors meeting. Both meetings will be held on Thursday, October 18th with the Board of Governors continuing on October 19th.

LINCOLN'S SURVEYING EQUIPMENT MOVED:
The surveying equipment used by Abraham Lincoln when he lived at New Salem, Illinois has been moved to a new location in the Visitors Center at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg, Illinois. The equipment has become the centerpiece of the newly re-designed exhibit area. Site Manager, Dave Hedrick calls the equipment the site's most prized possession.
On Saturday October 6th and Sunday October 7th, from 10:00am to 4:00pm each day the New Salem site will be hosting Surveying at Lincoln's New Salem where IPLSA members will depict 1830's surveying in New Salem. This will be the 8th year that IPLSA members have participated in the event.

GOVERNOR RYAN SIGNS HB-0889 STATUTES OF REPOSE INTO LAW:
Public Act 92-0265
HB0889 Enrolled
AN ACT in relation to civil procedure.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Code of Civil Procedure is amended by changing Section 13-222 as follows:

(735 ILCS 5/13-222) (from Ch. 110, par. 13-222)

Sec. 13-222. Action against land surveyor.
(a) Registered land surveyor. No action may be brought against a Registered Land Surveyor to recover damages for negligence, errors or omissions in the making of any survey nor for contribution or indemnity related to such negligence, errors or omissions more than 4 years after the person claiming such damages actually knows or should have known of such negligence, errors or omissions. This Section applies to surveys completed after July 26, 1967. This subsection (a) applies only to causes of action accruing before the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly.

(b) Professional land surveyor. No action may be brought against a professional land surveyor to recover damages for negligence, errors, omissions, torts, breaches of contract, or otherwise in the making of any survey, nor contribution or indemnity, more than 4 years after the person claiming the damages actually knows or should have known of the negligence, errors, omissions, torts, breaches of contract, or other action.

In no event may such an action be brought if 10 years have elapsed from the time of the act or omission. Any person who discovers the act or omission before expiration of the 10-year period, however, may in no event have less than 4 years to bring an action. Contract actions against a surety on a payment or performance bond must be commenced within the same time limitation applicable to the bond principal.

If the person entitled to bring the action is under the age of 18 or under a legal disability, the period of limitation does not begin to run until the person reaches 18 years of age or the disability is removed.

This subsection (b) applies to causes of action accruing on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly.
(Source: P.A. 82-280)
Passed in General Assembly May 15, 2001.
Approved August 07, 2001.

SB-0824 UPDATES THE ILLINOIS COORDINATE ACT:
Public Act 92-0311
SB0824 Enrolled
An Act in relation to the Illinois Coordinate System.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Coordinate system Act is amended by changing Sections 2, 5, and 7 as follows:

(765 ILCS 225/2) (from Ch. 133, par. 102)

Sec. 2. The system of plane coordinates which has been established by the United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, National Geodetic Survey for defining and stating the positions or locations of points on the surface of the earth within the State of Illinois is hereinafter to be known and designated as the "Illinois Coordinate System".
(Source: P.A. 83-742.)

(765 ILCS 225/5) (from Ch. 133, par. 105)

Sec. 5. The plane coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, used in expressing the position or location of that point in the appropriate zone of this system, consists of 2 distances, expressed in units of U.S. survey feet and decimals of a foot. One of these distances, known as the "x-coordinate" gives the position in an east-and-west direction; the other, known as the "y-coordinate", gives the position in a north-and-south direction. These coordinated depend upon and conform to the coordinates, on the Illinois Coordinate System, of the monumented survey triangulation and traverse stations of the United States National Geodetic Ocean Survey within the State of Illinois, as those coordinates have been determined by that survey.
(Source: P.A. 83-742.)

(765 ILCS 225/7) (from Ch. 133, par. 107)

Sec. 7. For purposes of more precisely defining the Illinois Coordinate System the following definitions definition by the United States National Geodetic Ocean Survey are is adopted:

The Illinois Coordinate System, East Zone, is based on the transverse Mercator projection of the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) or the Clarke spheroid of 1866 (North American Datum of 1927) (NAD 27), having a central meridian of eighty-eight degrees and twenty minutes West (88 = 20'W.) of Greenwich on which meridian the scale is set at one part in 40,000 too small. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian eighty-eight degrees and twenty minutes West (88 = 20'W.) of Greenwich and thirty-six degrees and forty minutes North (36 = 40'N.) latitude. The origin is given the coordinates x = 300,000 meters (984,250.000 feet and y = 0 meters for NAD 83 and x = 500,000 feet and y = 0 feet for the NAD 27.

The Illinois Coordinate System, West Zone, is based on the transverse Mercator projection of the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) or the Clarke spheroid of 1866 North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27), having a central meridian of ninety degrees and then minutes West (90 = 10'W.) of Greenwich, on which meridian the scale is set at one part in 17,000 too small. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian ninety degrees and ten minutes West (90 = 10'W.) of Greenwich and thirty-six degrees and forty minutes North (36 = 40'N.) latitude. The origin is given the coordinates x = 700,000 meters (2,296,583.333 feet) and y = 0 meters for NAD 83 and x = 500,000 feet and y = 0 feet for the NAD 27.

The position of the Illinois Coordinate System is as marked on the ground by monumented survey triangulation or traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the United States National Geodetic Ocean Survey for second and higher order first-order and second-order work, whose geodetic positions have been rigidly adjusted on the North American Datum (NAD 1927 or NAD 1983, or both), and whose coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined. Any such stations may be used for establishing a survey connection with the Illinois Coordinate System.

(Source: P.A. 83-742.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.

ILLINOIS PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYORS FOUNDATION:
The IPLSF voted to continue to provide a $250 cash award to future State Trig-Star winners. We hope by offering this cash award we will have more NSPS Trig-Star Programs offered in the high schools.

Items wanted for annual IPLSF Auction. IPLSF Chairman Edward L. Clancy, PLS is asking IPLSA members to dig deep, clean out closets and surveying vehicles and donate the items to the next IPLSF Auction, which will be held Thursday, February 21, 2002 at the IPLSA Annual Conference.
Contact:
Chairman Clancy
405 East Main St
Urbana, IL 61802
Phone: 217/384-1144
Fax: 217/384-3355
or any IPLSF member.

IPLSF will again this year sponsor a raffle to help fund scholarships, which are given out each year during the IPLSA Annual Conference. Tickets will be sent to all Active, Retired and Life Members asking them to bring in new money by selling the tickets to clients, suppliers and anyone they come in contact with. The drawing will take place during the IPLSA Annual Conference and 10 prize categories will be funded. The last raffle raised $15,820.00 with $2,373.00 of the $6,328.00 prize money awarded to the first place winner. $9,492.00 went toward the scholarship fund.