Ditch assessment options weighed (10/27/2008)

The Jay County Drainage Board considered new options on when to review drainage assessments.

After being casually discussed at the board's last meeting, Jay County Surveyor Brad Daniels brought the issue to the table again this morning. Daniels is looking for a better signal to use for raising local assessments, since some of the larger watersheds in debt are creating a major strain on his borrowing fund. As of now, assessments are only raised when a watershed is in debt more than five-years worth of collections.

"If I do some work on these large ones ... I won't have anything left in the borrowing fund," Daniels explained.

Since some watersheds have never exceeded the five-year debt, the fees per acre and plot are still low, which limits the amount of work that can be done before the watershed is in the red.

With a higher assessment, Daniels said his department would be able to do more work for locals, or, if there were no projects to be tackled, the fees could be stopped. Daniels said that drainage assessments, unlike other taxes, aren't as punitive when raised since they are only collected as long as they are needed.

"I don't have a problem with $2 (per acre) and $20 (per plot)," Daniels said. "I'd like to standardize them. Work gets done. The tile gets fixed. We shut it off."

He suggested setting a flat amount that if a watershed exceeded the number, the drainage board could consider raising the assessment.

"They're all different sized and different dollar amounts," commissioner Faron Parr pointed out, stating that setting a number such as $5,000 would work for the larger watersheds, while certain smaller ones wouldn't hit that figure in more than five years, making the idea somewhat ineffective.

"If we lowered it from five (years) to four, we might catch it a little bit sooner," Parr said, asking Daniels to look at how a shorter payback schedule could help.

Commissioner Gary Theurer suggested holding public hearings for new increases, even before the five-year mark, just to see what public feedback they would get. If there is a negative reaction to an early increase, the drainage board wouldn't have to raise the fee, otherwise they could hike the amount.

"Come in with a recommendation and we'll go from there," said commissioner Milo Miller Jr., asking Daniels to review which watersheds could benefit from a fee increase for the next meeting on Nov. 10.

In other business this morning, the commissioners:

•Made Jay County Auditor Nancy Culy purchasing agent to buy a new 44-inch plotter at a cost of $6,540. The current printer recently died and Culy said that parts are no longer available for the 8-year old plotter.

•Made Culy purchasing agent to buy a new laptop computer at a cost of $970 to replace the current one, which is prone to freezing up.

•Were informed by Culy that three properties in Dunkirk were sold at the commissioners' sale held last week. No bids were placed on an abandoned shop in the Dunkirk downtown or on an alley at the former nursing home on High Street in Portland. Culy suggested the Dunkirk shop may be able to be sold to the downtown revitalization group in the city at a price of $1.

•Looked over some quotes for a painting project for courthouse entrance and first floor common areas presented by courthouse superintendent Roger McBride. The commissioners decided to wait until after the holiday season to go forward with the project.[[In-content Ad]]