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Local surveyor offers to locate markers, avoid costly full resurvey of Dennis Lewis Town Forest
Summary
Jim Franklin presented town survey maps and proposed locating existing monumentation and recording GPS coordinates instead of commissioning a full resurvey, offering to perform the work hourly or as an appointed fence viewer. He cited prior survey work from 2009 and recommended boundary‑line agreements where deeds do not resolve lines.
Jim Franklin, a Candia resident with prior survey work for the town, told the selectboard on Oct. 27 that the town may be able to resolve boundary questions at far lower cost than recent bid estimates.
"The maps are all on file at the registry," Franklin said, arguing that a licensed surveyor could recover existing markers, record precise GPS coordinates and blaze the lines rather than commissioning a full new survey. He presented a 2009 survey plan he said covers much of the area the town requested to be resurveyed and cited bids he had seen ranging from about $16,000 to $32,000.
Franklin recommended sending a licensed surveyor to find and record monumentation and then report the state‑plane coordinates back to the board of selectmen so the town could update its records. He offered to perform the work on an hourly basis or, if the board preferred, be appointed as a fence viewer and be paid an hourly rate.
Board members asked for more detail about cost and scope and encouraged Franklin to provide a written hourly‑rate estimate that the board could forward to the conservation commission, which had sought the bids. Franklin said he previously proposed marking the Dennis Lewis Town Forest for $500, and that a later bid to simply recover monumentation cost $1,200.
Franklin noted one small area of contested ownership where deeds and title history are unclear and suggested that a boundary‑line agreement, a statutory process for establishing lines when deeds are inconclusive, could be used in that case. The selectboard did not take formal action on the spot and asked Franklin to supply a written estimate for review by the conservation commission and the board.
Next steps: the selectboard requested a written hourly rate and estimate from Franklin so it can provide documentation to the conservation commission and determine whether to hire a surveyor, pursue consolidation at the registry of deeds, or seek a boundary‑line agreement.
