Wright County drainage trustees held an informational meeting Dec. 15 on a petition to make an extension of Lateral 5 part of Joint Drainage District 111‑3. The meeting, called because the district engineer's report is more than 10 years old, focused on whether the county should televise tile and how to allocate costs.

Courtney Moore Strange and trustees explained that Henniger Construction provided an estimate of $33,760 to televise about 6,360 feet of tile across sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 of Iowa Township; crews would televise in roughly 800‑foot working sections and provide an SD card with audio and video. Trustees stressed televising is optional: petitioners can elect to televise the line, perform a portion of the work, or proceed without televising, with the caveat that not televising leaves private landowners exposed to future repair costs.

Several landowners urged the district to adopt the infrastructure now, saying an older, undersized 14‑inch segment could force expensive repairs onto downstream owners. One landowner recounted previous privately funded repairs and argued that district inclusion would spread future maintenance costs among the watershed rather than placing the burden on a single property owner.

Trustees clarified that if a section becomes a district asset, future repairs would be paid based on the engineer's classification and the shares assigned to owners in the watershed. They also noted additional legal fees will accrue through the drainage attorney as the petition advances.

Action: trustees agreed to place the petition and a recommendation to appoint an engineer (example named: Eric Eady, Ames) on next week's drainage agenda and to solicit estimates and legal guidance before formal hearings. The trustees directed staff to contact petitioners and prepare watershed boundaries, cost estimates and hearing notices.

What happens next: the petition will return to the trustees for a formal vote after the engineer's report and required hearings; televising remains an optional preliminary step that petitioners may elect to fund prior to inclusion in the district.