Leaving ’19’ behind and readying for 2000

Dustin Mcdonough

Editor’s note: This is the second article in a five-part series on Y2K preparations at and relating to Iowa State. Today’s story examines the problems with items such as checks and gravestones pre-dated “19__.”

A preprinted “19__” on check blanks or forms might inconvenience some at the beginning of the year 2000, but partial years on documents aren’t expected to cause many problems.

Rob Louden, computer publishing consultant for Iowa State University Printing Services, said he doesn’t know of any problems caused by forms or documents that have “19__” preprinted on them.

“I haven’t heard of any problems like that, but if someone had a document with something like that on it and wanted to change it, there are a couple of options,” Louden said.

Existing documents could be run through a press to have a new “20__” printed on them, he said. Another option is to have the form entirely reprinted.

Christy Hand, customer service specialist for ISU Printing Services, said in the case of two-part or three-part carbon copy forms, it would be better to completely reprint them.

“It would be possible to take the existing forms apart, reprint over them and put them back together,” she said, “but it would probably just be more worthwhile to have the forms completely redone.”

However, when dealing with a one-part form, Hand noted that it probably would be less expensive to reprint on the existing form than to produce new documents.

Items at banks, such as checks and loan documents, should not create many problems either, said Max Reckling, vice president of operations and Y2K coordinator of Brenton Banks in Des Moines.

“Our standard checks just have one blank for the entire date,” Reckling said. “They don’t have a ’19__’ on them, and they haven’t for years.”

Reckling also said that with the “modern computer age,” most application forms commonly used at banks usually are filled in by computers.

“We’re more worried about the computer forms than we are about paper forms,” he said.

Reckling said the internal paper forms used at Brenton Bank offices already have the partial date eliminated from them.

“Somebody must have seen the problem approaching long ago and took care of it then,” he said.

Some items that do have the “19__” problem are gravestones.

Ken Huffaker, owner of Nevada Monument Company in Nevada, said there are some monuments planted that have the incomplete date.

“One thing you could do is take the stone out, resurface it and re-letter it,” Huffaker said.

Scott Johnson, vice president of Colleen Johnson Monument Company in Fort Dodge, said the procedure involves cutting the face off the front of the monument and engraving the complete stone all over again.

Another option is filling in the “19” with granite dust matching the color of the stone and an epoxy, then cutting the “20” into the monument, Huffaker said.

“But after about one or two years, that begins to wear away and look bad,” he said.

Huffaker said the granite dust and epoxy option would cost $75 to $150. Resurfacing and re-lettering the stone could cost more than $500, he said.

Johnson estimated an even higher cost for resurfacing and re-lettering a gravestone.

Depending on the type of lettering and the size and quality of the gravestone, he said it could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.

“It means that someone who bought a gravestone with ’19’ on it back in the 1960s for about $60 or $70 might have to pay thousands of dollars to alter the stone,” Johnson said. “In some cases, it might be more worth it to buy a new grave marker.”

Neither Huffaker nor Johnson have heard questions from customers about altering gravestones so far because neither of their companies has made a monument with a “19__” on it for about 30 years.

“I guess we were more thoughtful than the computer people,” Johnson said.