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Nebraska State Surveyor outlines records, repository and technical duties to appropriations panel
Summary
Nebraska State Surveyor Casey (Cassy) Sherlock described the office's responsibilities — custodian of original survey plats, statewide survey repository, disputed‑survey settlements and appointment as ex officio secretary to the Board of Examiners for Land Surveyors — and said the office receives roughly 10,000 surveys a year.
Casey (Cassy) Sherlock, Nebraska State Surveyor, told the Appropriations Committee the State Surveyor’s Office serves as custodian of the original field notes, plats and government‑survey records that form the foundation of property boundaries in Nebraska.
“I'm custodian of the field notes, maps, charts, all of the original plots of the original government surveys that began in Nebraska in 1855,” Sherlock said, describing records kept in a vault in the statehouse. She said the office maintains the Nebraska Survey Record Repository, receives about 10,000 surveys a year and holds more than 250,000 survey records, maps and images.
Sherlock outlined other statutory duties: serving as arbitrator for settlement of boundary disputes, issuing opinions on survey questions, appointing deputy state surveyors (including a deputy in the Nebraska Department of Transportation for DOT project control corners) and serving as ex officio secretary of the Board of Examiners for Land Surveyors. She said the repository’s digital scanning program uses an overhead book scanner to preserve older records and that she is actively pursuing older county records to add to the repository.
On technical accuracy, Sherlock told senators the original monument location controls priority even where measured distances vary; she explained how early survey methods (66‑foot steel chains) produce geographic anomalies but that monuments’ found position governs legal location.
Sherlock accepted the committee’s recommended budget for agency 62 and described that the Board of Examiners operates on a fee‑funded budget that has remained roughly constant for years. She closed by saying the survey office provides technical assistance to county and city officials, surveyors, title companies and members of the public who use the repository.
