County Surveyor
Welcome to the Lake County Surveyor's Office
Your County Surveyor is an Indiana Constitutional officer of our county government and is elected to a 4 year term. The current official, George Van Til, of Highland, Indiana is serving his fifth term. Every aspect of the Lake County Surveyor’s operations have been modernized and upgraded in recent years for better governance and public service. Please take a look around and let us know if we can answer any questions.
The County Surveyor oversees all section corners for surveying reference throughout the county; supervises the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of county drains, creeks and ditches; reviews and inspects all new residential, commercial and industrial development for compliance with the county stormwater ordinance in unincorporated Lake County, while providing a myriad of computerized property based information for public usage through its Geographic Information System (GIS).
Learn more…
What about our County Surveyor?
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George Van Til, 61 years of age, from Highland, has been your Lake County Surveyor during the last 17 years, having been elected 5 times. He succeeded Mr. Steve Manich who served for the 28 years previous.
A skilled, experienced and motivated administrator with a background in stormwater drainage issues gleaned from service on both the County and Highland Councils, he’s the only elected official serving in Lake County today with administrative experience in Town, Township, County, State and Federal government, from the neighborhood precinct level to the United States Senate staff.
His wide-ranging expertise are assets in today’s modern County Surveyor’s Office, and his record breaking meeting attendance and office presence make him accessible to most constituents with questions or suggestions.
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County Surveyor Projects
Developments in the County Surveyor’s Office in recent time include a state-of-the-art Geographic Information System (GIS) from scratch, county intergovernmental stormwater drainage projects in Dyer, Crown Point, Griffith, Highland, Hobart, Lake Station, Lowell, Schererville, and St. John, flood-control planning for large areas of the county, record keeping and mapping updates on many levels, a new water quality improvement and enforcement (MS4) section for unincorporated Lake County, more accessible surveying documents, total office administration and reorganization for more user friendly access and more.
Departments
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Mapping Reference Department
Keeps and perpetuates a section corner record book showing original government section corners. Checks and references yearly at least 5% of all corners shown in the record book and establishes, locates and references a portion of all original government section corners. This serves to create and maintain an accurate framework that all other land based government information is based on.
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Stormwater
Manages the maintenance, construction and reconstruction of County Regulated (Legal) Drains in conjunction with the Lake County Drainage Board & Advisory Committee. Click here to find out what the Surveyor's Office is doing to coordinate area wide and county wide stormwater management efforts.
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MS4 Stormwater Quality
According to U.S. EPA, polluted storm water runoff is a leading cause of impairment to nearly 40 percent of surveyed U.S. water bodies. Click_here to find out how Lake County through a federal/state mandate is combating this problem in the unincorporated areas and what you can do to help.
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Geographic Information Services
It is estimated that more than eighty percent of governmental functions are associated with managing information about specific locations or geographic areas. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system for the input, editing, storage, maintenance, management, retrieval, analysis, and output of geographically referenced information. GIS supports applications such as stormwater maintenance projects, land planning, Homeland Security,law enforcement, property appraisal, civil engineering, natural resource monitoring, transportation planning, public health and environmental analysis, economic development, census analysis, and much more.
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Government Center Green Roof?
As the county continues to develop as a highly urbanized society, the loss of pervious surface is an unavoidable consequence resulting in the loss of water absorption which decreases water quality and increases flooding. We propose a "green roof" for the county complex, which would be both functional and a useful demonstration project.