Drainage board deals with ditch issue

If someone’s keeping record, Monday’s Jay County drainage board meeting may go down as one of its longest.
For nearly 70 minutes, Jay County Commissioners, acting as the drainage board, discussed issues pertaining to ditch maintenance taking place near county roads 250 West and 650 North in rural Bryant.
Commissioners also heard updates on summer infrastructure and roadwork from engineer Dan Watson and highway superintendent Ken Wellman.
The drainage discussion pertained to maintenance on a ditch between properties owned by Larry J. Miller, 6798 N. 250 West, and Eddy P. Royer, 2830 W. 650 North.
County surveyor Brad Daniels said the ditch is being moved at Miller’s request to avoid the breaking of a levy for a pond on Royer’s property that butts up to the ditch.
The ditch, Daniels explained, has migrated toward the pond overtime and is washing out, posing a risk for flooding.
Royer expressed some misgivings with the maintenance work. Part of those feelings result from a miscommunication between him and Daniels.
Daniels reached out to Royer before the work started, but never heard back. The project then went forward.
Royer said he was out of town when the call was placed and came back to see trees downed on his side of the ditch.
The county has 75 feet of right of way to maintain the ditch, which can include removing trees.
“That’s my bad,” Daniels said of the miscommunication.
Royer said it has created unease on his end.
“I’m just a little skeptical of what’s going to happen,” he said.
Because the pond and levy inch up to the ditch, most of the work to rectify the issue has to be completed on Royer’s side.
Royer requested that as few trees as possible be removed from the property and the water line not be changed.
He added that he doesn’t want his property line to change, which he said legal documents mark as the center line of the ditch.
But auditor Anna Culy and county attorney Bill Hinkle both noted that it’s not unusual for property lines that lie on waterways to move over time.
Commissioner Jim Zimmerman suggested the work could actually make the property line more accurate.
“If what Brad is doing is actually moving it back to where that legal description started with, you own your side and his owns his side … all Brad is doing, I somewhat guess, is going by this legal description here is putting where the legal description says the ditch is at,” said Zimmerman.
There was discussion of completing a survey to determine the property line, but near the end of the meeting, it was resolved that a hook that had been taken out of the ditch by Daniels’ operator would be replaced and maintenance work would continue.
Meanwhile, commissioners Faron Parr, Doug Inman and Zimmerman received a report from Watson, who updated them on the status of summer bridge, road and culvert work.
Watson told commissioners that six large culverts were replaced in June. They include two each on county roads 650 South and 400 North, along with one apiece on county roads 650 West and 300 East.
Watson also noted that 6.5 miles of paving work on county roads 700 East and 300 North has been completed.
Work has also begun on six bridge repair projects that were identified in Watson’s last inspection cycle. The work is to be completed by summer’s end.
Highway superintendent Ken Wellman provided an update on summer chip and seal work and told commissioners how much money will need to be appropriated to complete summer road work.
More than 50 percent of the work — 57 of 108 miles — has been completed at a cost of $8,343.35 per mile, according to Wellman.
Wellman said it’ll take an additional $404,510.85 to complete the work, which includes completing the remaining chip and seal work and grinding a 3.5 mile portion of Como Road.