Moving toward merge?

Two more small watersheds may soon become part of the larger Salamonie Watershed.
The Jay County Drainage Board this morning moved toward combining the J.J. Jaqua Watershed, which drains an area north of Portland, and the J.J. Jenkins Watershed, which drains an area southwest of Portland, into the larger watershed.
Both small watershed funds are in the black, which the board said should be a requirement before any watersheds are consolidated.
Drainage board president Jim Zimmerman suggested that over time it might make sense to combine the county’s numerous ditch funds into three larger watersheds.
Some of the county drains into the Wabash River, some into the Salamonie, and some into the Mississinewa River.
“Actually, all of our water goes to those three places eventually,” said Zimmerman.
But board member Milo Miller Jr. cautioned that it’s possible for watersheds to become so big that there’s a disconnect in the taxpayer’s mind between paying a ditch assessment and seeing work done that affects drainage on their property.
For instance, he noted, a couple of ditches in Madison Township eventually drain into tributaries that lead to the Wabash, which is miles away.
At any rate, any such consolidation would only take place if ditch funds were in the black. “As they came out of the red, that would be the only way to do it that would be fair,” Zimmerman said.
A hearing on consolidating the Jaqua and Jenkins watersheds into the Salamonie will be conducted at the drainage board’s Feb. 25 meeting.
In other action, the board:
•Directed Zimmerman and county surveyor Brad Daniels to approach the Jay County Council for a grant of $5,000 in infrastructure funds to help resolve a problem on county road 100 North, west of Portland Municipal Airport, where flooding routinely washes out the road. An adjacent property owner is willing to commit $5,000 to the project, and the county highway department is also willing to commit $5,000. The cost has been estimated at $15,000, but Daniels was urged to get multiple quotes from potential contractors to take to the county council.
•Authorized Daniels to get prices for a replacement truck for his department.
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The funds were included in his 2013 budget. Another truck — a hand-me-down dump truck from the county highway department — also needs to be replaced. But Daniels said he had no money in his budget for that. Any such purchase would require an additional appropriation by the county council.
•Heard a complaint from rural Portland resident Dorcas Fields about the proposed Bluff Point Wind Farm. Fields was one of those people surprised by the movement on the wind farm, although it has been the subject of numerous meetings over the past six years.
“A lot of people don’t listen to the radio and don’t read the newspaper because they can’t afford it,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]