County ditches merging plan ok’d by county board
News | Published on November 27, 2024 at 5:33pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0Ditches 13, 19 are located in rural Parkers Prairie
By Tom Hintgen
Otter Tail County Correspondent
County commissioners, on Nov. 19, approved unanimously the merging of Ditch 13 and Ditch 19 that will include the townships of Parkers Prairie, Woodside and Eastern.
Prior to the vote, commissioners heard from landowners affected by the merger. Drainage Inspector Colby Palmersheim pointed out efficiency of operations through the merger and the benefit to landowners in southeastern Otter Tail County.
County ditches are regulated by the County Ditch Authority which is comprised of the five-person Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners. The five commissioners manage the systems according to Minnesota State Statute.
The Ditch Authority is responsible for maintaining and repairing a drainage system as nearly comparable to the original design as possible. Repairs are determined to take place by requests from the benefitted property owners of that ditch or by the annual inspections performed by County Ditch Drainage Inspector Palmersheim and his assistants.
Current ditch work in Otter Tail County includes, but is not limited to, removal of bog material, culvert replacement, general cleaning and building rock weir for flood prevention. Once the benefited property owners are determined, all costs incurred by the ditch system (for repairs, maintenance and inspections) are assessed back to the benefited property owners.
These systems are a combination of 325 miles of open channel and tile drainage infrastructure that were created to improve farming capabilities, create outlets for land locked water bodies, and to drain nuisance wetlands that were considered a detriment to public health.
“Under the guidance of Statute 103E, Otter Tail County staff is actively moving towards a more proactive approach in making sure that the drainage system infrastructure is being maintained,” said Palmersheim, “and improved upon in order to better serve Otter Tail County in accordance with the statute that established them.”
All county drainage ditches were built from 1900 to 1923. Otter Tail County had 70 systems that were petitioned in the early 1900s to be built by the local property owners. Of those 70, a total of 60 ditches were constructed.