Grant County board adds private Jesse Tippie tile to maintenance, adopts assessment rates after public hearing

The Grant County Drainage Board voted to add a private field tile known as the Jesse Tippie tile to the regulated Jesse Tippie ditch and approved assessment rates during a public hearing at a county drainage board meeting.

Board members approved the change after hearing from multiple residents who described persistent standing water and past efforts to clear clogged tile. Diana Harris, a resident at 3490 East 200 North, said she received notice only last week and told the board she had lived on her property “almost 50 years” and did not believe her property flooded. David Burns spoke on behalf of his son, who lives at 3394 East 200 North, and described repeated standing water that he said “looks like a lake in front of their house” and said an excavation and jetter had been used to partially clear a blocked section.

The board explained that previously the Jesse Tippie maintenance fund was paid only by farmland in the watershed and that the private tile behind the row of homes was not on the assessment roll. Adding the private tile brings the homeowners into the regulated ditch so the board can use ditch-assessment funds to maintain and, when needed, replace the tile.

The board adopted the rates as advertised: $200 per home site, $10 per acre and a $100 charge per parcel (parcel-only assessment). The board discussed collection mechanics: assessments would appear on property tax bills each spring and fall and flow into a ditch fund restricted to this ditch. A board member explained the board sometimes spends up to one year’s collection in advance (anticipating the next year’s receipts) for urgent repairs.

Board members acknowledged concerns about affordability for residents on fixed incomes. Raymond, a board member, offered to inspect at least one homeowner’s property to determine whether that parcel could be assessed as a $100 parcel rather than a $200 home-site assessment. The motion to add the private tile to maintenance and adopt the rates carried on a voice vote; the transcript records an affirmative voice vote but no roll-call tally.

Residents asked who would pay for past or immediate repairs; board members said the regulated fund will be the mechanism going forward and that work already underway by a local landowner (identified in the meeting as Glenn) has been donated without charging the county.