Watersheds to join with Salamonie

Two more small watersheds were combined into the Salamonie Watershed this morning, while ditch assessments on five other small watersheds were raised.
Drainage board president Jim Zimmerman has said he’d like to see more of the county’s small watersheds combined into the Salamonie, Wabash, and Mississinewa systems over time.
“But we’re only combining them as they come out of the red,” Zimmerman said today.
“We have so many small watersheds,” said board member Faron Parr. With larger, combined watersheds, “if we do have a problem we can fix it right.”
Ditch maintenance work is funded by ditch assessments, but in smaller watersheds the annual income isn’t enough to handle large projects. In those cases, the funds can be borrowed from another county account, sending the individual watershed into the red. But the amount borrowed must be paid off in five years or less.
Combined into the Salamonie Watershed today without objection were the J.J. Jenkins Watershed and the J.J. Jaqua Watershed.
The board also raised the ditch assessments for the Luteman Watershed, the W.H. Caster Watershed, the Ira Scholer Watershed, the Samuel Scholer Watershed, and the Hotmire-Redmond Watershed to $2 an acre and a $20 minimum per plot.
But board member Milo Miller Jr. expressed hesitation about raising the ditch assessment on the Hotmire-Redmond Watershed, noting that while it was in the red its annual income appeared to be sufficient. “I can’t see raising it unless it needs to be raised,” said Miller.
County surveyor Brad Daniels said major work is planned on that watershed this year, which would send it further into the red.
“I’ll go along with it,” responded Miller, “but I want to see some work done out there.”
No further business came before the drainage board, but in their role as the Jay County Commissioners the three:
•Authorized opening the courthouse for a Saturday, May 18, cruise-in sponsored by the Arch Bridge Kroozers.
•Heard a report from Jay County Emergency Management director Ralph Frazee on the gasoline pipeline spill.
•Learned that county employees making use of the National Association of Counties prescription card had saved more than $979,000 since the card was adopted by Jay County in September of 2007.[[In-content Ad]]