County Surveyor Vance Swenson asked the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners at a work session to approve raising the county's public land corner preservation fee to support day‑to‑day maintenance and mapping of the public land survey corners that anchor legal property descriptions.

Swenson told the board the county has collected a $10 fee on many land‑related documents since a 1985 ordinance and that inflation and rising program costs have left the maintenance program “on life support.” He said the county and the Association of Oregon Counties successfully secured a change at the state level to remove the $10 statutory cap (Swenson referenced House Bill 3175), and the local proposal is to increase the collected fee from $10 to $30.

Swenson said the proposed increase is intended to fund roughly one full‑time public land corner technician (an FTE), covering wages and benefits and stabilizing maintenance and recordkeeping for corners the county relies on for subdivisions, road projects and timber management. “The proposal is to go from $10 that we collect now up to $30,” Swenson said.

Swenson presented fiscal figures for fiscal year 2023, saying the clerk’s revenue line showed about $59,082 from covered recordings; dividing that amount by $10 yields an estimated 5,900 land‑related deed recordings in that year. He cautioned the count reflects a mix of instruments — including refinances and some other recordable instruments listed in statute — so recording totals vary year to year.

Board members asked clarifying questions about which recordings trigger the fee and how revenue is calculated. Commissioner Webb and other commissioners were shown the statute’s list of covered instruments and were told about the program’s built‑up balance from prior years. Swenson also said the county worked with the legislative staff at the Association of Oregon Counties (he named Mallory Roberts) and that the only organized concern at the state level came initially from a bankers’ association, which later withdrew opposition and remained neutral on the local increase.

Swenson told the board that, per county counsel, adopting a new fee will require amending the county ordinance and will likely require two sessions; he asked that the matter be scheduled for a public hearing on Jan. 14. The board did not take a vote at the work session; Swenson offered to prepare the materials the board requests for the January presentation.

The next formal step is the public hearing and ordinance drafting; no fee change was adopted at this meeting.