SOUTHEAST UNDERGROUND FACILITY PROTECTION COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES FROM JEKYLL ISLAND, GEORGIA

April 3, 2001

Approval of 2nd Qtr. Meeting minutes (All)

Old Business (All)- TB gave update on county water and sewer departments lack of response to locates and the status of PSC filings, CC discusses PSC's ability to fine anyone and looking at no response from owners. A new code for Positive Response "facility owner/operator refuses to locate".

"Dig Safely" Program Update (Claudette Campbell) - 10% - NLR (no locate requested), 30% mislocated over 9 years in Oregon. Tenn. 50% were NLR and 50% of located damages were mislocated. WorldCom 60% of damages were NLR. 11,000 damages reported to the UPC last year. Damage tickets and damage reports will be available at the UPC. CC wants core causes of damages to focus educational efforts. The UPC created four 30 second Dig Safely PSA's and will make them available to other one calls throughout the country. CGA stamp on training and damage prevention programs and Dig Safely will be the first with that approval. Official sub-committee educational program committee of the CGA. www.commongroundalliance.com Baseline study to identify how much knowledge is out there about the CGA & survey questions for different organizations will finish surveying them next month. Possibility of turning UCC's into CGA committees.

Excellence in Locating Program (Holly Files) - Start up program to recognize utility locate technicians who exhibit outstanding skills and professionalism throughout the state of GA. Partnering with the GUCC, utilities, contract locate companies and private utility locate contractors to develop a program beneficial to all stakeholders. Targeted to start statewide in Jan. 2002. Anyone interested please contact Holly Files at hfiles@gaupc.com.

Locate Rodeo (Tim Boatfield) - Start up program to have an underground utility locate technician competition throughout the nation. Actual field locating on varies utilities under real life circumstances. Prizes and cash awards to winners. Seeking partnerships with GUCC, utilities, equipment manufacturers, contract locate companies and private utility locate contractors. Targeted to take place in 2002, possibly at the UPC EXPO. Anyone interested, please contact Tim Boatfield at tboatfield@gaupc.com.

UPC EXPO Update (Fiona Bowen) - August 1st, $250 fee before May 1st. Will be covering 50 cities throughout the state of GA with a presentation covering the changes in the dig law, updates on new system and training. Lawyer to speak about down time & Vermeer possibly providing free training on HDD. Contact Fiona Bowen for more information at fbowen@gaupc.com.

#DIG PSA Update & Video (Holly Files) - Providing Dig Safely PSA with #DIG tagline for 10 Southeastern states targeting the CATV state associations asking for airtime statewide. Need volunteers to approach contacts with CATV associations, we have a press kit and copy of the PSA for each state. We hope to enlist each state's One Call system so they can add their contact numbers instead of national numbers. GA is already running the PSA statewide. Anyone interested, please contact Holly Files at hfiles@gaupc.com.

"SOCS" Meeting Update (Annette Reburn) - 26th & 27th of April at Daytona Beach, www.se1call.com for information. Fall meeting in TN. Agenda is not out but will have a Liaision and first line supervisor breakout also.

HDD Rodeo (Steve Stull) - 5-6 people in the booth & 5 judges from the NTDPC. 5th annual rodeo will be at the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas. CC is willing to see if we can get Buckshot Jones to go. Article in the HDD magazine about the rodeo and an open letter from the NTDPC to HDD community about education for damage prevention. Possible panel discussion at the EXPO? 37 competitors from 3 different countries. $160K in prizes and prize money. Next year the NTDPC will probably sponsor a dinner.

Call Center Updates

Alabama 

Tennessee 

Georgia

Status of Damage Prevention Efforts by Company

Scheduling of 3rd Qtr. Meeting, July 16th & 17th in New Orleans.

ATTENDEES

Back to Top

This page was updated on Monday, September 10, 2001

Please send comments about this web page to the Webmistress.