Community Outreach

MISS DIG 811’s Community Outreach team travels the state of Michigan, providing municipalities, excavators, & utilities informational tools to share with their citizens & customers. In 2019 & the beginning of 2020, Colleen Goddard & Paul Harding visited approximately 1200 different city, village or township halls or offices as part of a project to blanket the state of Michigan with MISS DIG 811 brochures, posters, bobbleheads & more! At the same time, we provided MISS DIG 811 information to communities to post on their municipal websites regarding Public Act 174, so industry and the general public will know the rules when it comes to safely working around underground facilities.

That was brought to an abrupt halt due to COVID-19. At this time, we are starting to visit municipalities that had not been visited prior to COVID-19. Along with that, we are visiting / reaching out to municipalities that are not members but should be per PA 174. If you have not been contacted or visited, please set up an appointment using the information in the You Are Invited! Tab. We would like to ask how our organization can best serve you. Over the years we have found that some of our best ideas come from our members and our customers!

We have also partnered with Paradigm and attended every virtual Paradigm meeting in Michigan this year. Paradigm is sponsored by the pipeline companies and focuses on first responders, pipeline operators and excavators.

Meet the members of MISS DIG 811’s Community Outreach team:

Paul Harding
pharding@missdig811.org
248-370-6426

Paul Harding started working for MISS DIG 811 in late 2009, as a Customer Service Representative. He worked the 2nd shift at MISS DIG 811 from 2010 to early 2013, when he became one of the 1st of two Web Ticket Verifiers. In late 2013, Paul started training excavators how to place their dig notices online with Remote Ticket Entry. When the department started, approximately 40% of all MISS DIG 811 tickets were created online. Currently, that number has grown to almost 70% of all tickets being placed online! In 2016, Paul became a part of MISS DIG 811’s Education Department and helped create MISS DIG 811’s Live Certification format. Since the start of that program, over 5000 people have taken our live certification course! He also created MISS DIG 811’s Field Basics course, which was designed for the people that are out there in the field doing the work! Field Basics can also be used by companies for onboarding new employees and meets the qualifications for The Gold Shovel Standard Field Basics!

Are you having problems with a facility not responding in positive response?

The Community Outreach Team is taking the lead on trying to minimize the 999 – HAS NOT RESPONDED line item that you sometimes see when checking Positive Response. As always, attempt to mitigate the situation by retransmitting your ticket as often as needed to ensure proper documentation is kept. If you are having problems with the same facility not responding on repeated tickets after several attempts were made by retransmitting and reaching out to the facility owner yourself, inform us by using the 999-Community Outreach Section below.

We also offer a great resource called the Status Update Meeting every Monday at 10 AM We discuss system issues, the major players are usually available to answer questions, and there is a round table at the end where you can bring up current problems you are experiencing. The meetings are usually 5-15 minutes in duration.

999 - Community Outreach

Paul Harding at pharding@missdig811.org

Excavators:

Paul Harding at pharding@missdig811.org

Facility Owners:

Are you aware that a Positive Response post is needed for EVERY facility on a ticket before an excavator can legally start digging? If you are sent a ticket, you are required to respond to it even if the digging is actually taking place in a bordering municipality. In this case you can use the 001 – NO CONFLICT response.

Posting to Positive Response is not only required by law per Public Act 174, it’s also a MONEY SAVER!! With the billing that started in 2020, the membership fee is calculated based on the number of transmissions. So, if an excavator must send out multiple re-transmits requesting a response from your facility you, and every other facility owner on that ticket, is charged for each transmission. So, responding to each ticket before the Response Due Date, is a money saver for your facility and every other MISS DIG 811 member near you!!!!