County moves to boost PLSS funding, plans search for missing townsite records

Morgan County officials on Aug. 19 agreed to place a proposed increase in the record-of-survey filing fee on the county's fee schedule for public hearing, and discussed plans and funding to search federal archives for missing townsite records needed for local land surveys.

County surveyor Recorder Rose requested the board approve raising the record-of-survey filing fee from $20 to $30 per sheet. Rose said the additional revenue would be dedicated to the county's PLSS inventory — "the section corners here in Morgan County" — which he said is "very lacking" and needs investment. He told commissioners the fee currently brings in roughly $1,200 annually; raising it to $30 would increase that to about $1,700 and that state grant funding of roughly $20,000 per year also supports PLSS work.

Commissioners and staff clarified process: changes to fees will be adopted as part of the county's formal fee schedule, which requires a public hearing. The motion approved at the meeting directed staff to add the $30 record-of-survey filing fee to the fee schedule for formal processing and public hearing rather than implementing an immediate fee change.

Separately, staff described efforts to recover original townsite and section-corner records that are missing from county files. The county lacks original recorded townsite surveys for Croydon, Richville, Milton, Enterprise and parts of Morgan and Peterson, staff said. Those originals may be held in federal archives in Washington, D.C., or may have been lost or destroyed. Staff said some federal records are not digitized and that an in-person search of national archives could be necessary; the county has discussed sending Recorder Rose or hiring a contractor and estimates the search could cost about $2,000.

Commissioners discussed possible funding sources; one suggested using unspent travel funds or transferring from the commission's training budget to cover initial costs so staff could retrieve the records quickly to support the Croydon Fire Station land work. Staff said they had already reached out to the National Archives and to potential contractors and would provide cost estimates and timelines.

Next steps: the fee increase will be included in the comprehensive fee-schedule update for public hearing (tentatively discussed for Sept. 2). Staff will continue outreach to the National Archives and report back with cost estimates and a plan for retrieving missing townsite records.