Residents meet with Lincoln County board to discuss ditch project
By Robert Wolfington IIIIVANHOE - The Lincoln County Board is looking at cleaning up a ditch in the county but before they make a decision the commissioners want input from the residents.
Landowners along Judicial Ditch 19 in the western part of Marble Township in Lincoln County met with the commissioners Thursday afternoon to give their perspective on the $40,000 clean up project.
Lincoln County environmental officer Robert Olsen said the ditch already has a $25,000 cleaning project scheduled for the northern portion of the ditch in 2009.
Olsen said to completely clean the ditch it would cost an addition $15,000.
Commissioner Joan Jagt said the board wanted to take an informal poll of the residents to determine if the county should assess landowners with the cost of cleaning the remainder of the ditch.
The board did not take action Thursday, Jagt said it would seek comment from the remaining residents before making a decision.
Commissioner Curt Blumeyer, a resident of Marble Township, said he spoke to one resident who supported cleaning the remainder of the ditch. The person could not attend the meeting.
Olsen said the ditch system has between 12 and 13 landowners with identified benefits from the ditch system. The $40,000 cost to clean the ditch would be assessed to those residents. Assessments are based on the individual benefits from the ditch.
A resident who attended Thursday's hearing said he supported the project.
The board asked the residents if they would like to see the assessment payable in one year or spread out over several years.
The residents were supportive of having the assessment payable over multiple years.
"You could still pay it in one year," said Olsen.
Olsen said residents could also request a total re-determination of benefits for the ditch. He said a re-determination could bring additional landowners in that receive benefits from the ditch.
Olsen said a total re-determination would be an additional cost that would be assessed to landowners.
"When we originally looked at doing a re-determination we figured it would cost between $10,000 and $15,000 to do," said Olsen. "A viewer came in and they said it would cost about three times that much."
He said a re-determination would also take the assessment decision away from the county board and place it on the local watershed district.
Blumeyer said the residents could move forward with the clean up project and make a decision about a re-determination later.
