I found this in the Co. commissioners minutes - 1976 Lake co. Mt. …surveyors always scandalously pushing the limits….
NOT. TWO. PHONES!!!
T. Nelson - SAM
Lake County seems to be a shoestring operation. In the 1970's the county population was half what it is today. They don't seem to have an engineering department, I'm guessing that any survey staff is, and was, part time at best.
I spent a pretty good portion of the afternoon reading through 2.5 years of The commissioner’s journals seeking an answer for a 6 figure issue. It was enlightening to see everything going on in that short time span. This was right when MT was implementing the Mt subdivision and platting act. Lake county had a county surveyor at that time, but he resigned shortly after the phone was removed. The commissioners and clerk and recorder started the plat room and hired a clerk to run it. The county surveyor position wasn’t filled. The commissioners contracted with 2 local surveyors to alternate as examiners. Couldn’t charge more than $12/day, if there was a survey to review. They hired their first planner. After about 6 months he asked permission to make copies of all the subdivision plats in the county to have in his office for reference. The clerk and recorder asked for permission to buy another typewriter, because now they needed another one.
The commissioners minutes were vague but true- and the indexes are even more so. Hence the need to read through all the minutes. I came up with a short list of letters and documents that are possible leads and took it upstairs to the commissioners offfice. The receptionist was helpful but said she would need to refer it to someone with more experience to do that research. On the drive home I received a phone call from another admin. person and we had a good conversation to clarify what I was hoping to find out. She said she’d try to find it but there were no guarantees.
In that same time frame, the commissioners met with one of the local surveyors to consult about how to complete a county road inventory. (The “ROAD BOOK” had not been maintained for ages) Since they no longer had a county surveyor they devised a plan to survey existing centerlines and draft them up. The plan was to plot the roads by township on 24”x36” Mylar. North half the township on one sheet, south half on another, with the misc. rd information annotated thereon. The 2 halves of the township were placed back to back in hanger plastic jackets. The commissioners hired a rid man and chairman to help the local guy run the lines. It didn’t list how much they were paid. So that explains the road plats and that cardboard box marked “Old field books” on the top shelf in the very back of the vault.