But first come the surveyors, a fact that hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Surveyors are not always a popular sight,'' acknowledged Dean Ringle, Franklin County engineer. But although the job title changed long ago, county engineers still are responsible for running survey lines and setting and maintaining survey markers. But people do know that surveyors often are followed by bulldozers. We get met with mixed feelings,'' said Larry Pennington, director of surveying operations at R.D. Zande and Associates on the Northwest Side.
People get very excited when they see a surveyor.
It means something is going to be built, one way or another. A lot of times, we're the first in for the developments, including the controversial ones you read about in the paper. My field personnel are trained not to answer too many questions. We don't want to give the wrong answer. We're sometimes called land pirates.