Beltrami County board opens hearing on transferring Judicial Ditch 2 to City of Bemidji

The Beltrami County Board of Commissioners opened a public hearing June 23 on whether to transfer jurisdiction of Judicial Ditch 2 — a drainage system built in 1910 that lies entirely within the City of Bemidji — to the City of Bemidji.

County staff member Bruce said JD 2 "was built back in 1910" and described it as an "active system" that historically relied on assessments on properties identified as benefiting from the ditch. He said no ditch assessments have been collected "for a long time" and characterized the system as effectively inactive in terms of formal maintenance assessments. Bruce told the board the City of Bemidji has passed a resolution requesting the transfer and that, if the transfer occurs, the city would maintain the ditch through its stormwater program rather than limiting costs to the properties identified under the original ditch assessment map.

The hearing was opened by motion of Commissioner Sumner, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, and the board voiced support for receiving public comment. Resident Wesley Halverson, speaking on behalf of his mother, asked who would pay for maintenance under each option; Bruce replied that if the county retained JD 2, the properties shown on the historic assessment map (those highlighted in pink on the displayed map) would be assessed, while a city takeover would make maintenance a city-wide stormwater expense. Halverson also asked whether there was any estimate of the tax impact; Bruce said no work has been done on the ditch recently and that any cost estimate would be up to the city to determine if the transfer proceeds.

Commissioner Carlson said he believed the city "does a really good job of managing their stormwater" and that including JD 2 in the city's system could avoid a tax increase limited to the historically assessed properties. Commissioner Winger noted past beaver-related backups in the Division Street area and asked who had been responding; Bruce said county road funds had been used to address instances when water backed up against a road.

No resolution was in the meeting packet and the board did not vote to approve or deny the transfer at the hearing. Bruce said the next step would be for county staff to prepare the documents required to transfer right-of-way and easements to the City of Bemidji and bring the formal transfer documents back to the board for consideration. He emphasized work will be required to ensure the right-of-way and easement transfers are handled properly.

Procedural votes tied to the hearing were recorded in the meeting: the board voted 5–0 to open the public hearing (motion by Commissioner Sumner, second by Commissioner Carlson) and later voted 5–0 to close public comment and the hearing (motion by Commissioner Carlson, second by Commissioner Sumner). The board did not take a formal vote on transferring JD 2 during this meeting.

The county staff direction recorded at the meeting was to prepare transfer documents and return the matter to a future board agenda; no final decision or transfer was executed at this session.