County Surveyor

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Delmer “Dale” Hamilton - County Surveyor

Hamilton was elected on November 2, 2010, to serve a four year term as Douglas County Surveyor. Dale moved his family and company to Douglas County 42 years ago. He has been the engineer/surveyor in charge of several land development projects in Douglas County—Bannockburn, Deerfield, Hidden Village, Russellville, and The Pinery.

The Korean G.I. Bill provided Dale with the opportunity to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Missouri. Two of his student summer breaks were spent route surveying for the Alaskan Road Commission. His book, Milepost 71 on the Copper River Highway, describes his last summer in the Alaskan wilderness. Upon graduation, he was recruited by Union Carbide as a Sales Engineer for their Linde Division. After extensive training in the applications of industrial gases, i.e., steel fabrication and oxygen therapy, he was assigned a sales territory in Colorado. Two years later he left Linde to join a small engineering and land surveying company in Denver.

Hamilton has held professional licenses in Colorado, Wyoming, Missouri and Texas. All have since been retired—except Colorado. Recently, he was awarded a Certificate in Paralegal Studies from Boston University. He says, “knowledge of law is crucial to the practice of land surveying. In the course of their work, surveyors must employ elements of geometry, engineering, trigonometry, mathematics, physics, and law.”

Throughout his professional career, Dale has been driven by new challenges. In private practice he grew his engineering and surveying company, Hamilton Enterprises, Ltd., from scratch to 50 employees. He founded a residential development, Cape of the Woods, on the waterfront of the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. He founded a soils engineering company, Soil Technology of Texas, Inc., to chemically treat expansive clay soils. Dale was instrumental in creating new law, CRS § 38-51-110, for the protection of survey monuments—Hamilton Enterprises, Ltd v South Park Land & Livestock Co., Inc. After several years of successful operation, he sold his engineering and surveying company, but not the name, to two employees who continue to operate as JR Engineering.

Dale’s public service work includes Assistant Engineering Manager of the Homestake Project—a trans-mountain water diversion project for Aurora and Colorado Springs. At the conclusion of that assignment, he was promoted to City Engineer of Aurora. By private contract, he was the Elbert County Engineer; County Planner, and County Land Use Administrator. He was also a Park County Deputy Surveyor and advisor to the Park County Planning Commission. Dale was appointed to Governor Lamm’s Front Range Commission. He also served on a Douglas County blue-ribbon panel, whose mission it was to streamline land development regulations. He was chosen to sit in Douglas County District Court as a Commissioner on the Bridge Costs Hearing, E-470 Authority v. Crown Pointe Centre.

Dale eagerly looks forward to organizing his county office. Insofar as no space is provided in county buildings for the County Surveyor, he will create a website to serve as his office. The website will be a useful tool for surveyors working in the County.