Photo courtesy of Kerry Netzke A photo taken from the Redwood River near Liberty Park in Marshall showed erosion and crumbling riprap from the 1930s.

MARSHALL — While the city of Marshall has made a lot of improvements along the Redwood River over the past few decades, erosion along the riverbanks is still an issue, local landowners said this week.

On Tuesday, Marshall resident Ron Halgerson, and Kerry Netzke of the Redwood-Cottonwood Rivers Control Area asked the Lyon County Board for help funding a pilot project restoring a section of riverbank near Liberty Park. Members of the Redwood Riverbank Workgroup were asking for about $36,000 of county buffer enforcement funding.

“We feel that the buffer enforcement money would be an excellent source to do this,” Netzke said.

County commissioners said erosion was an issue for the riverbank, but they thought the workgroup should also reach out to the Marshall City Council.

“I think one of the big drawbacks is that the city of Marshall’s not involved,” Commissioner Gary Crowley said.

Netzke said the Redwood River Workgroup started meeting in September 2023.

“The group consisted of myself, citizens, we had city and county officials — Commissioner Crowley has sat in on the meetings. And then we had DNR representatives,” Netzke said. “We kind of talked about what’s left of the river through Marshall.”

Netzke shared photos of crumbling brick and rock walls lining the riverbank behind properties on Park Avenue in Marshall.

“The riprap was installed back in the 1930s,” Halgerson said. “That infrastructure through our community is simply tired and worn.”

In addition, the area seems to be having more weather-related events in the spring and summer that could lead to erosion on the river, he said. Halgerson said he had seen the impact severe weather events had on his neighbor Dan Giles’ back yard.

“It’s drawn so much of the soil away, basically it’s settled. It’s collapsing,” he said. “So this is an opportunity to look at this and make a dramatic improvement.”

Netzke said staff from the Soil and Water Conservation District and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources kayaked the Redwood River in the Marshall city limits.

“Not only did they find a lot of these WPA (riprap) projects, there are some unneeded low-head dams in the river that are impacting fish passage. There are a lot of storm sewers that jet out into the river, and basically the jet wash goes into the opposite bank and causes more erosion than is needed,” she said.

Netzke and Halgerson said the workgroup wanted to do a pilot project to restore part of the eroded riverbank on property owned by Halgerson and Giles.

“We wanted to be able to have a project that we could showcase, to show what that river can look like by replacing the harsh rip-rap and stacking that the WPA project did, and replace it with more of a natural landscape,” she said.

Netzke said the DNR was willing to waive the $1,200 permit fee for the project, and also provided a design for riverbank restoration. The landowners contacted D&G Excavating about the proposal, and received a quote of $40,800. Part of the reason for the cost was the difficulty of accessing the site, Netzke said.

Netzke said the workgroup was approaching the county for help with paying for the riverbank restoration. They were requesting a 90% cost share for the project. Based on the quote from D&G, that would come to $36,720. The landowners had committed to a 10% match.

“I as a county commissioner and a taxpayer, have concerns about precedents,” said Commissioner Todd Draper. “I can guarantee you’re going to have a lot of requests after this is done.”

Commissioner Rick Anderson asked if Netzke had considered using funding through the RCRCA, or approaching the Marshall City Council for help.

“The storm water fund should be able to be used for that, because every citizen within the city pays that fee,” Anderson said.

Netzke said she had spoken with Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson, but had not asked the city council abound funding. RCRCA also did not currently have a general cost-sharing fund for projects like the bank restoration, she said.

“I’m not against funding some of it, but I can’t do the 90%,” Anderson said.

Commissioners said they felt willing to provide some funding toward the project, if the city of Marshall and the landowners also participated. They voted to dedicate up to 40% of the funding for the riverbank project, contingent on the city of Marshall also participating, and the landowners providing 20% of the funding, instead of 10%.