[collected Tue Aug  6 11:22:44 2002]

Chris.....Rewrote the piece you sent me so it would work for my
newspaper (see below; note end).  Don't know if and when it will be
used, but appreciate your e-mailing it to me.
Love, Mom



BEWARE NEW TECHNOLOGY

The Lilligrens, lifelong Rhode Islanders, never considered living
anywhere else.  Seven years ago, they built their house in Hopkinton on
a 2-acre lot straddling the Connecticut border. The Lilligrens , true
to their roots, took care to lay the house's foundation in Rhode
Island.  Now they may be in for a new address, without going anywhere,
as a recent survey by the town of North Stonington, right across the
state line, has put their house in Connecticut.  The survey used
military satellites to locate two 19-century boundary markers, six miles
apart.  Then, on a computer, the survey team plotted the markers on a
detailed map and connected them with a straight line, correcting the
slightly distorted border established by an 1840 survey.
The military's Global Positioning System, a cluster of 24 satellites,
launched in the 1980s and designed for targeting weapons and tracking
troops, is revolutionizing land surveys, making it cheaper and easier
for small municipalities to pinpoint their boundaries.  The new boundary
left only a corner of the Lilligren living room in Rhode Island.  As a
result, the Lilligrens and their three children could end up in a
different school district, and answerable to a new set of state and
local authorities.  Already, North Stonington is planning to add their
property to its tax rolls, along with six other residences in the 25
acres between the old survey line and the new one.  The town of
Hopkinton plans to contest the move, which it calls a blatant land
grab.   Scary to think Gilpin County could end up as part of Boulder,
thanks to state-of- the- art technology.