Proposed Annexation Of Land Into Drainage District 15 In Dickinson County Draws Opposition From Some Landowners And Osceola County
Proposed Annexation Of Land Into Drainage District 15 In Dickinson County Draws Opposition From Some Landowners And Osceola County
October 12, 2021Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– Controversy over a proposal to annex land into drainage district 15 near Lake Park spilled over at a public hearing on the matter at today’s (Tues.) Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting. One landowner who’s opposed addressed the board, calling the proposed annexation a “land grab”, adding he feels drainage in that area is sufficient the way it is…
“We’ve got a good waterway out to there that’s lasted for 100 years or a thousand years, I believe, so why do we want to be tied into something that’s not going to do us any good and end up. I know this is a land grab because they want to push this tile up to Silver Lake, or up to Lake Park, that they tried a couple years ago, and they just want more money and more acres to finance it.”
Jim Hudson, a drainage attorney that’s been consulting the supervisors on the matter, recommended today’s (Tues.) hearing be continued to a later date to give the engineer time to file an amended report that would include how each parcel of land would be benefited by being a part of the district. That drew fire from Ed Jones, Chairman of the Osceola County Board of Supervisors. Some of the land proposed to be annexed is in that county. Jones questioned why that wasn’t done in advance of today’s (Tues.) hearing…
“This should have been done at the beginning, showing material benefit to these properties by cleaning out this outlet. That’s just being neighborly to your neighboring county. I mean if we were going to be annexing your ground and you ask me, hey, show me the benefits of this, I think we would have fell over backwards to have that done prior to this hearing. And I don’t think that this was handled very neighborly. I also don’t think that, I think it showed a real lack of concern and a lack of respect for the taxpayers holding an annexation hearing smack in the middle of harvest.”
Hudson defended the proposed annexation, saying Dickinson county is on firm legal ground…
“This particular drainage district has a natural stream which is close to it or was a part of it when it was formed and not all of the water goes through the ditch, but a good bit of the water goes through the ditch. What that means is that the drainage district is providing a better outlet brought closer to all the landowners in that watershed.”
The supervisors opted to take Hudson’s advice and voted unanimously to continue the hearing to 9:00 am January 25th. It was stated that copies of the engineer’s revised report will be made available to interested parties prior to that date.
