Jayme Malone, president of Husker Surveying, has a total of 44 years’ experience in land surveying, starting in 1972 with the Geodetic Surveying Division of the Nebraska state Department of Roads. Malone became a licensed land surveyor in the state in 1986. In that capacity, he has worked for the state, the county surveyor (Lancaster County), private surveying and engineering companies and a land surveying company that was owned by a real estate firm.
Malone struck out on his own with one partner to form Husker Surveying in 2003.
“I started by working on cell towers and made connections with architectural and engineering firms. We grew our reputation by word of mouth and by our product,” he tells Inside Towers in an interview.
Husker has completed surveys for some 2,000 cell towers over the years. When an architectural and engineering firm hires Husker for a tower survey, the company typically wants Husker to provide a topographic site plan, Malone explains. “They’ll show us an area where they want to put a cell tower. We then survey that area and give them an AutoCAD drawing that shows all the features and improvements” that either exist now or that would be added like roads or fences, for example. (AutoCAD is software for computer-aided design).
The survey includes three primary items: the lease area where the tower will be located, an access easement to the tower (a road) and a utility easement so power can be provided to the tower. Generally, Husker personnel look for government land corners and ties its survey to those. The process is more automated than it used to be, using GPS and robotic total systems. Malone says the robotic system is especially useful in areas where open sky is limited, say in a city with several tall buildings.
Once Husker turns in the initial survey to the A&E firm, typically within seven to 10 days, then it is usually called back to actually lay out the area where the tower will go by placing stakes and flags in the ground. “I always leave room in my schedule for tower surveys, because in this business, you never know when someone will call and say: ‘I’ve got 10 sites. I need to get them done in two weeks. Can you handle it?’”
Husker Surveying operates in seven Midwestern states: Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Arkansas. The company has four full-time employees, and uses two, one-man surveying crews.
Malone taught AutoCAD at Southeast Community College for a time and was also a manual drafter in the ‘70s. He takes pride in Husker’s drawings. “I’m particular about how our drawings look. They’re easy to read, they have a balance to them and look professional.”
A lot of thought goes into their drawings, says Malone. “I think that’s one of the things that makes Husker stand out — our drawings and our customer service. We have good relationships with the A&E firms we work for.”
Contact the company at: www.huskersurveying.com or call the Lincoln, NE-based company at (402) 423-5202.
By Leslie Stimson
October 20, 2016
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