Boone County drainage board vacates five legal drains tied to Project Domino; denies Sanford West relocation for now

The Boone County Drainage Board voted to vacate five legal drain tiles tied to the Project Domino development and to deny a separate petition affecting the Sanford West drain portion, the board said during a public hearing.

Surveyor's office staff told the board Project Domino is a proposed development near State Road 32 that would affect several regulated drains. In a report filed before the hearing, the surveyor's office recommended vacating the Deer Creek Tributary 1, a portion of the Fraley tile, a portion of the Pauley tile, the Roberts Tributary 1, and the Saunders Tributary 1 as requested by the petitioner. The board moved to approve vacation of those five drains and the motion passed on a voice vote.

The surveyor's report noted all of the drain tiles targeted for vacation lie solely on the petitioning property. Staff said notices were mailed to six property owners potentially benefiting from the drains, one notice was returned undeliverable, and a public notice ran in the London Reporter on Aug. 30. The office said one landowner, identified in the report as Van Hine, contacted staff to say the Roberts tile vacation could cut off subsurface drainage from a roughly 40-acre field on his property.

At the hearing a resident who said he would be affected described a plan to install an 8-inch privately owned tile around his 40-acre parcel. "So if they don't screw up my range, they can vacate it. I don't care," the resident said, referring to his expectation that a private tile contractor would install the replacement tile.

Surveyor's staff said the developers had communicated with the tile contractor, Ramsey Tile Drainage, and provided a letter indicating they would work with Ramsey to install the proposed 8-inch tile. The surveyor recommended denying the petition to vacate the west portion of the Sanford drain at this time and to instead handle Sanford as part of a future relocation plan; the board voted to deny the Sanford West vacation petition.

Separately, the board approved vacating the Roberts drain on the condition that the petitioner install the proposed 8-inch tile that would reroute subsurface flow around the affected 40-acre parcel. The board recorded the motion and approved it by voice vote.

Board members and staff emphasized that the 8-inch replacement would be a private drain owned by the affected landowner rather than a new legal drain under county jurisdiction. Staff said future proposed reconstructions of the Fraley tile across private property could come before the board as separate petitions.

The board closed the public hearing after hearing from the resident and moved on to other agenda items.