Delaware County schedules Dec. 8 hearing after viewing of Indian Run drainage petition

Delaware County commissioners Jeff Benton, Barb Lewis and Gary Merrill viewed a drone video Oct. 13 showing the proposed improvement area for the Indian Run lateral number 3 drainage petition and scheduled the first formal hearing for Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, at 10 a.m. in the Board of County Commissioners’ office. No testimony or decisions were taken at the viewing.

Brett Bacon, a Soil and Water staff member who presented the footage, said the video was flown the prior Wednesday and that active crops limited visibility. "We waited as long as we could, hoping that maybe harvest would happen, and we'd we'd be able to get a video with the, the crops off," Bacon said. He told commissioners, "It is my intention to fly another video, sometime in advance of the first hearing in December and show that to you as part of our presentation of the first hearing report." The footage shown followed the mapped line of the watershed downstream to upstream and included both surface drainage patterns and subsurface tile.

Commissioners and staff described the watershed as primarily agricultural with a few rural residential parcels and a small portion that clips the Village of Ashley; staff noted the Indian Run ditch has been on the county drainage maintenance program since 1981. A commissioner asked about outreach; staff said roughly 30–35 letters were mailed to owners in the area and that many recipients farm the parcels, with about half likely being parcels within the village that are only partially in the watershed.

Vince Messerly, representing the Stream and Wetlands Foundation, said the foundation owns about 245 acres in the project footprint and is negotiating with Preservation Parks Delaware County to donate the property for restoration. Messerly said the foundation’s plan would be to "daylight the surface drain and restore it to a natural stream" and that it would prefer restoration to placement of the land under a maintenance assessment and easement. "I'm a little frustrated, disappointed with the soil and water district that I've attempted to contact them for months now," Messerly said, adding that he had called and visited staff offices without response and hopes for dialogue before the Dec. 8 hearing.

County staff told the commissioners that because crops obscured the ditch in the current video, a second drone flight after harvest should better show open ditch conditions. The board closed the viewing and reiterated that the Dec. 8 hearing will be the forum for landowner testimony and for the engineer's report on the petition.

The county did not take any formal action on the petition at the Oct. 13 viewing beyond announcing the hearing date; the petition’s inclusion in the maintenance program and any assessment or easement would be decided at subsequent proceedings.