Wayne Hensche told the Schroeder town board on May 10 that he would like to survey “the last big piece of private land in Cook County.”
“I would do this [survey] cheaper than any property I have surveyed in the county. I really would like to get this done,” Hensche told the board at its May 5 meeting.
The land around Dyers Lake includes a 3,145-acre portion of the Finland State Forest located in Schroeder Township. It includes about 2,065 acres owned by 31 private landholders and about 1,080 acres owned and managed by the Department of Natural Resources.
The last time the land was completely surveyed was 1859. Hensche said that about half of the land survey corners are lost. And because of a current lack of controlling corners, landholders would have to pay to have surveys that would span 2-3 miles in one to two directions, “making them cost prohibitive to individual owners.”
For property owners who have 10-20 or 30 acres, Hensche said he would locate “four good computed corners” for a cost of $500 each. Larger 40-acre parcels would be assessed approximately $17.04 per acre.
Hensche said cost could be brought to historic lows by a cost share of $3,500 from the DNR Division of Forestry. If they pay it.
“Right now it doesn’t look like they will be able to pay for the survey because they didn’t get their paperwork done on time. And besides, the DNR is broke. They might be able to pay later, but I will eat it [the cost] if I can do this survey,” said Hensche.
“What if people find out they own less land they thought?” asked Township Supervisor Tina McKeever.
“That happens, but typically everyone shrinks together,” said Hensche.
One of the keys to locating the meander corner on the south shore of Dyers Lake is to find “old timers” who know where the original corners were, said Hensche. The board gave him a couple of names of people who might know where the corner(s) were or that still exist in some fashion.
For landholders to upgrade roads or septic systems, they need an accurate layout of their property lines, said Hensche.
“Landholder improvements on their lands cannot be left to chance but need to be boxed in by reliable public land survey corners,” Hensche said.
Because the land is also a mix of private and state lands, state foresters cannot manage land in this “checkerboard” ownership framework without knowing where the boundaries exist, said Hensche. The Cook County assessor and auditor also need the parcels to be accurate so a fair and equitable tax assesments can be established.
Several property owners were on hand. One of the largest landholders was Tom Dwyer, owner of Isak Hansen & Sons Inc. which operates a gravel pit there. When asked if he would like to see this survey competed, Dwyer said he could see both sides of the question, but added that he could use the gravel pit with or without the survey, and the $4,000-plus cost to have it done might be of little benefit for his company.
Skip Lamb also owns property in this section, and he said he could see pluses and minuses to the survey.
Hensche reiterated his point, saying the original survey corners are disappearing quickly, it would be harder to do in the future, and the cost would certainly be greater.
“Multiple site visits to many corners must be completed to professionally weigh all of the alternatives. This is beyond the scope of traditional surveying. Essentially, the whole area must be surveyed to do it correctly. Any piecemeal survey not entirely bounded by controlling 1859 original land corners will not stand the test of time,” Hensche said.
The Schroeder town board asked West End Cook County Commissioner Bruce Martinson to have the issue discussed at the commissioner’s next meeting.
If the commissioners give the go ahead, every landholder will get three weeks of public notice and a public meeting will be held to discuss the possible survey. Every landholder will get one vote and, if approved, no one can opt out of the survey, Hensche said.
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