Jon
I work for a County Surveyor. Our office has a full-time staff of 8 and a
part-time County Surveyor. Our GIS Mapping division is responsible for
updating our Auditor's Plat Maps and has therefore begun to mark on the
plats the location of all cemeteries that the Auditor decides has enough
evidence to mark. It will be up to me to provide the Auditor with the
written evidence. HOWEVER, I have done this so far on MY OWN TIME and not
on County Time. It makes the process slow, but still progress. After a
meeting with some officials last week, I think I might be able to do the
research as part of my job, supporting the GIS staff by doing time-consuming
research for them.
When you mention the DNR and "recorded" cemeteries, it is my understanding
that the DNR Cemetery Database Registry is the source for their cemetery
information. If you notify Jeannie of a cemetery and can give her an idea
of where it is located, it is a cemetery to the DNR.
The cemeteries that no one owns list in the tax records everything from
themselves (Lewelling Family Cemetery), disbanded churches, former Township
Trustees and even just the word "CemetAry" as the owner. I want to change
them all to read "Township Trustee" or "County Commissioners" or
"County
Auditor" or something, since no one owns them. It must not be that easy to
do since they won't do it. These would be the only ones that could be
marked by the County Surveyor though. Those on private ground are just
that, on private ground. These would require the willingness of the
landowner to have the cemetery "surveyed-out" of their property, requiring a
private surveyor be hired and paid by them. The new law Indiana passed
earlier this year even states that the landowner is responsible for hiring a
surveyor in order to get a special reduction on his taxes. It is such a
small amount of a reduction and surveyors cost so much that I would bet
since being passed only a few, if any, landowners have taken up the process.
As for the County Surveyor being responsible for marking the cemeteries, I
can see where you are coming from, really, but some counties barely have a
County Surveyor, so this would be costly to them. Our 2-man field crew is
out 90% of the day with their normal work as it is and they have
state-of-the-art GPS equipment now. I think it will become an item MOST
County Surveyors will want to look a in the next few years, but so far no
one has given them a reason to. The law makers need to focus on outlining
some procedure the counties are suppose to take to make all of this happen.
I don't think our County Surveyor is opposed to the idea of doing it, he
just doesn't want taxpayers to say he is wasting their money paying
employees to do work that is not their job to do. If the Commissioners say
"survey that county-owned cemetery" he would do it, but the Commissioners
can't say "survey that cemetery on private ground for Mr. Jones so he can
get a tax reduction" and still stay County Commissioners!
Maybe we as a group, with the wide-range of experience we have, could put
some of this verbiage together to send to the lawmakers. After all, they
need to know how the laws they have already passed are working or
not-working in some cases.
I too have been "listening" to the talk about GPS and am very thankful that
someone as experienced as Rich Green is a part of this group. While most is
above my head (I am the administrative assistant, not a surveyor by the way)
I do know that quality mapping is important, especially in areas like
Bartholomew county where farmland is being developed at an alarming rate (in
my opinion). I for one have noted his conversations so I can go back
through the archives and pull them up when it comes time to seriously talk
to a group here, maybe someday the county surveyor, about mapping all the
cemeteries. I think that developers will one day see this as a
cost-effective idea for them, just ask Crossmann Communities if they spent
any money on Shadow Creek Farms that they weren't planning on originally
spending. I think Menard's was paying attention and they have handled their
situation here with the ancient burial site with a lot more tact and PR.
I am meeting today with the current Jennings County Recorder, my dad & 2
newspaper guys on the "saved" records that my dad alerted them were rotting
away in the County Highway garage and she mentioned wanting to talk to me
about saving cemeteries. Look in the Columbus Republic or North Vernon
Banner tomorrow for details (is it election time yet?) but don't expect any
photos of me! I don't do photos especially not to help someone campaign in
the next county (you have to remember I work for the county and have been
recruited a time or two to work on campaigns, since the outcome effects my
job sometimes).
Anyway, what do you all think?
Cris West
Columbus, IN
----- Original Message -----
From: "jon andrews" <sianoil(a)hotmail.com>
To: <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 8:05 PM
Subject: [INPCRP] Map Standardization, Surveys, etc.
To the list:
Taking two steps back and off the subject of genealogy. There was quite a
detailed discussion a few days ago about GPS and recording data on
location
of cemeteries, which was way over my head to say the least. I
wondered
though, first, we have talked a lot on this list about county officials,
but
have never heard much discussion about County Surveyors and their
role in
helping to preserve these sites. Now, I know most are underpaid and some
counties don't even have them or contract it done, but second, I would
suppose that if the cemetery falls under the rule of the public, say
County
Commissioners or the trustee, aren't they somewhat obligated to
make a
land
survey or at the very least a
recording of the coordinates of the cemetery to help preserve it. The way
I
see it is...
1. If the DNR does not recognize a cemetery that is not recorded (This is
what they told us a few years back during our coal mine battle) and
2. You can't record it without a description
Then, I would think that the County Surveyor would be somewhat obligated
to
bring it into compliance with the law and I also question the fact
that
the
trustees are spending public funds on something that,
essentially, does not exist. Not to mention that some of them are located
on
private property.
Just a note as to what has happened in our county. The Commission, through
the County Surveyor, has a workforce of surveying students from Vincennes
University under his wing surveying and recording over 30 cemeteries in
Knox
County, so far. I hope it continues.
Jon
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