Our GIS site is open to the public with three offices currently online.

On the Assessor tab you will be able to view parcels and section information. A photo and sketch of each parcel are also available. If you have any questions about information on the Assessor tab, please call 308-236-1205.

On the Planning/Zoning tab you will be able to see information on floodplains, wellhead protection areas, and county zones. If you have any questions about information on the Planning/Zoning tab, please call 308-236-1998.

GIS Data For Download

• Democratic
• Libertarian
• Republican
• Legal Marijuana NOW
• Non-Partisan (not affiliated with a party)
          How Non-Partisan voting in Nebraska works in Primary elections link:
  (https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/how-nonpartisan-voting-works-nebraska-primary-elections)

The elected offices nominated on a partisan basis are:

President, Vice President, U. S. Senators, Member of the U. S. House of Representatives, Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer, State Attorney General, County Commissioners, County Clerk, County Attorney, Register of Deeds, County Assessor, Clerk of the District Court, County Sheriff, County Treasurer and County Surveyor.

Effective: December 2, 2013

County surveyor powers and duties:
(1) It shall be the duty of the county surveyor to make or cause to be made all surveys within his or her county that the county surveyor may be called upon to make and record the same.
(2) The county surveyor shall prepare and file the required annual inventory statement of county personal property in his or her custody possession as provided in sections 23-346 to 23-350.

Trespass; exemption from liability. The county surveyor in the performance of his official duties, shall not be liable to prosecution for trespass.

Original corners; perpetuation. It shall be the duty of the county surveyor in surveys made by him or her to perpetuate all original corners not at the time well marked, and all corners or angles that he or she may establish or reestablish, in a permanent manner by setting monuments containing ferromagnetic material, according to the instructions of the State Surveyor.

Corners; establishment and restoration; rules governing. The boundaries of the public lands established by the duly appointed government surveyors, when approved by the Surveyor General and accepted by the government, are unchangeable, and the corners established thereon by them shall be held and considered as the true corners which they were intended to represent, and the restoration of lines and corners of said surveys and the division of sections into their legal subdivisions shall be in accordance with the laws of the United States, the circular of instructions of the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, on the restoration of lost and obliterated section corners and quarter corners, and the circular of instructions to the county surveyors by the State Surveyor under authority of the Board of Educational Lands and Funds. The county surveyor is hereby authorized to restore lost and obliterated corners of original surveys and to establish the sub divisional corners of sections in accordance with the provisions of the section and section 23-1907. Any registered land surveyor registered under the provisions of sections 81-8,108 to 81-8,127 is hereby authorized to establish any corner not monumented in the original government surveys in accordance with the provisions of this section 23-1907. Subdivision shall be executed according to the plan indicated by the original field notes and plats of surveys and governed by the original and legally restored corners. The survey of the sub divisional lines of sections in violation of this section shall be absolutely void.

Surveys; records; contents; available to public. The county surveyor shall record all surveys, for permanent purposes, made by him or her, as required by sections 81-8,121 to 81-8,122.02. Such record shall set forth the names of the persons making the application for the survey, for whom the work was done, and a statement showing it to be an official county survey or resurvey. The official records, other plats, and field notes of the county surveyor's office shall be deemed and considered public records. Any agent or authority of the United States, the State Surveyor or any deputy state surveyor of Nebraska, or any surveyor registered pursuant to sections 81-8,108 to 81-8,127, shall at all times, within reasonable office or business hours, have free access to the surveys, field notes, maps, charts, records, and other papers as provided for in sections 23-1901 to 23-1913. In all counties, where no regular office is maintained in the county courthouse for the county surveyor of that county, the county clerk shall be custodian of the official record of surveys and all other permanent records pertaining to the office of county surveyor.

Land surveying. Land surveying shall mean the establishment or reestablishment of corners and the boundaries and the location of lots, parcels, tracts, or divisions of land, which may include distance, direction, elevation, and acreage, and the correct determination and description of lots, parcels, tracts, or divisions of land for, but not limited to, any of the following purposes:

• To furnish a legal description of any tract of land to be used in the preparation of deeds of conveyance when the description is not the same as the one in the deed of conveyance to the current owner or when bearings, distances, or measurements are needed to properly describe the tract being conveyed
• To furnish a legal description of any land surveyed to be used in the platting or subdividing of the land
• To determine the amount of acreage contained in any land surveyed
• To furnish a topographic plat of a lot, parcel, tract, or division of land and locating natural and artificial features in the air, on the surface or subsurface of the earth, and on the beds or surface of bodies of water for the purpose of establishing the facts of size, area, shape, topography, and orientation of improved or unimproved real property and appurtenances to the real property.

Office Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

There are approximately 962 square miles in Buffalo County.  Within this area there are 1500 miles of road: 112.3 miles are County oil or concrete roads.  There are 342 bridges over 20 feet in the County.  There are also 242 bridges that are 20 feet and under which are not considered bridges but are classified as culverts because of the constricted water flow.

There are 41 full time employees and during the summer months we employ three to four more people.  In addition to the Highway Superintendent, there are: one assistant Highway Superintendent, two clerical, two foremen, 19 maintainer operators, five heavy equipment operators, one sign man, one welder, two mechanics, one mechanic assistant and eight truck driver/operators.

We also have a large inventory of machines and equipment valued at $9,143,598.00.  This includes 21 maintainers, one crane, three backhoes, four loaders, 43 pickups and trucks and a considerable number of other pieces of equipment. 

We have an excellent communication system which includes 2-way radios which are used extensively.  They save many miles of driving and enable people to communicate from one corner of the county to the other.  They have saved many maintainer men from having to walk for help after having a flat tire, being stuck in a snowstorm or any other emergency type situation.  Our foremen also have cellular phones.

We have 2-way radios in all the maintainers, office, loaders and in a majority of our other equipment.  The radios also give us communication with the Sheriff’s Department an the County Surveyor.  The telephone system gives us easier communication with the Sheriff’s Department, Surveyor, other County Courthouse offices and also the City of Kearney offices by dialing just four digits.

Buffalo County is divided into 26 Townships.  We have divided the townships into Zones 1 through 26.  We bid gravel once a year.  The bid period is from April 1 of one year to March 31 of the following year.

Buffalo County went to the GEO Base Addressing System and signs were installed in 1997.  This system makes finding a resident faster in an emergency type situation.

• 1st page of document: $10.00
• 2nd page & all subsequent pages: $6.00 each
• The above fees pertain to ALL documents filed within the Register of Deeds offices.
  Exceptions listed below are "no fee" documents:
• Federal Tax Lien Termination
• State Tax Lien Termination
• UCC Termination
• Relinquishment
• Certified copies: $1.50 per page
• UCC Financings Statements, Assignment, Amendments, Release, Partial Release: Flat Fee $14.00 (Change effective date 7/1/2021) LB 910 passed 7/31/2020

Documentary Tax - Effective 7/1/2005 to $2.25 per thousand (LB-40) (see the Computation Table) 
The Nebraska Department of Revenue requires the Register of Deeds office to collect a documentary-stamp tax when a deed is presented for recording.  A  Form 521 (transfer statement) must be completed for all deeds, memorandum of contracts and/or land contracts.

The above list of fees are in accordance with LB463 L.S. 1983: Effective August 26, 1983; LB606 L.S. 1985 Effective July 1, 1985; LB1153, Effective January 1, 1991 LB 1022, Effective January 1, 1993; LB1099, Effective July 16, 2004

LB 254 - Provide New Requirements for Instruments recorded in the Office of Register of Deeds Effective August 27, 2011

• Recording Space Requirements:
• 3" X 8 1/2" on top of page 1
• No attachment or affirmation shall be used in any way to cover any information or printed material on the instrument. (For example, nothing may be taped or attached to an instrument.)
• Every instrument presented for recording shall have on the first page BELOW the 3 inch margin a return address and the title of the document
• Margin Requirements: 1" on both vertical sides, and 1" on the bottom. This applies throughout the document.
• Instrument Requirements:
• Paper at least 8 1/2" X 11" , and no larger than 8 1/2" X 14"
• Shall be printed, typewritten or computer generated in black ink, white paper, and a minimum 8pt font
• Must be legible
• Each signature on an instrument shall be in black or dark blue ink
• Names of each party shall be typed, printed, or stamped beneath the original signature.
• Stamps shall not cover or interfere with any part of the instrument
• Exceptions to the rule:
• Instruments signed before the effective date of this bill (August 27, 2011)
• Instruments executed outside of the U.S.
• Certified copies from governmental agencies (Death Certificates)
• Instruments signed by an incapacitated or deceased person at the time of recording
• Instruments formatted to meet court requirements
• State & Federal Tax Liens
• UCC Instruments
• Plats, Surveys, etc.