Local company specializes in subdivision survey, design

Ozark Mountain Land Surveying is a relatively young company, but the company was built on Larry Jansen's many years as a surveyor, according to Donna Jansen, who is the company's secretary and co-owner with husband Larry.

Larry Jansen first became interested in surveying while watching his brother-in-law, Charles Garner of Anna, Ill., develop his business in the late 1970s. Jansen also was attracted to the mathematical aspect of surveying, and the fact that he could work outdoors.

In 1978, Jansen began working with Garner. Later, while in college, he surveyed for Mapco in Edmond, Okla. After moving to Springfield in 1985, he worked for Heithaus Engineering for nine years.

By 1994, Jansen was ready to strike out on his own. "My husband had been in the surveying business for 16 years at that point, and he had always wanted to own his own business," Donna Jansen said.

The Jansens, along with Donna's brother, Lyndal Link, formed Ozark Mountain Land Surveying Inc. in October 1994.

Those early years were a challenge, said Donna Jansen, who noted that the partners first worked out of Link's basement.

"Eventually we were able to hire some help and it grew from there," she said. Larry Jansen points to the long hours of the business' early days as a blessing. "We were so busy we didn't have time to worry about it," he said.

Land surveyors play a critical role in development, according to Donna Jan-sen, who described the survey process: A client brings a surveyor the legal description of a piece of land to be developed. Ozark Mountain Land Surveying then does the topographical survey and boundary survey, then Larry Jansen, along with the company's engineer, designs the property's infrastructure (streets, utilities, sanitary sewer and storm sewer) to city and county specifications.

The company that began with three people working around the clock from a basement has grown to include 14 employees.

"We've been fortunate," Donna Jansen said. "You live one day at a time and it just grows. We have some wonderful clients. It's the clients who make you, you don't make the clients."

Jansen said that her husband's track record and reputation with officials has helped the business go far. "Larry knows a lot of city and county people, and they know that his plans are done to their specifications," she said. "He also works hard to meet tough deadlines on quick turnaround jobs."

That positive working relationship has led to Ozark Mountain Land Surveying's growing involvement with subdivision development because of Larry Jansen's familiarity with development regulations.

Ozark Mountain Land Surveying has worked on gated communities, the new Springfield Agricultural Marketing Group stockyards, Marlborough Manor, and recently began work on old Siler's Golf Course on South National. City Utilities and Morelock-Ross are also on the company's client list.

Ozark Mountain Land Surveying could be handling additional types of surveying work in the future, according to Larry Jansen. "I'd like to expand into other areas," he said. "We've got a good team together, but we could diversify more."

That diversification could take the form of structural engineering, which would include municipal work and county bridge projects.

Larry Jansen said there are several reasons why the business has grown to what it is now.

"It's not any one thing," he said. "It's taking care of your customers. Also, the economy has been good and development has been good. Our word is good, we stand behind our product and do things in a timely manner."