(Spirit Lake)– A continued hearing at today’s (Tues.) Dickinson County Board of Supervisors over a controversial project being proposed for drainage district 15 on the south edge of Lake Park wound up being continued again on a technicality.
An engineer on the proposed project reported 71 percent of the landowners in that area were opposed to it, meeting requirements to legally stop it. However, Ed Mendering, representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which owns the majority of land in the district, indicated the agency did not actually vote either for or against…
“I submitted a letter this morning that if the project was going to go through we had an alternative to try and restore some of that wetland area on the public land. That water would not have to go through the tile then. You know, maybe we could do some water quality improvements. You know when I was here last week I was told that our, even if we voted against it, it didn’t count because our acres were not included at that time.”
However the engineer said he consulted with a drainage attorney who said the agency WOULD be entitled to a vote. That message though never got relayed to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. As a result, the supervisors voted to continue the hearing to their February 11th meeting. In the meantime, they’re requesting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service submit a written response stating whether they are for or against the proposed project.
