Murray County and neighboring counties form joint drainage authorities and order redeterminations for multiple ditches

The Murray County Board of Commissioners, seated jointly with commissioners from Cottonwood, Nobles, Lyon and Redwood counties, on July 1 adopted a series of findings and orders establishing joint drainage authorities and directing redeterminations of benefits for multiple judicial and county ditches.

The joint boards said benefits rolls for several ditches — including Murray County Judicial Ditches 5, 22, 23, 24 and 28, and County Ditch 30 — were last determined before enactment of wetlands-protection laws and that land uses, drainage practices and land values in the benefited areas have changed. As a result, the boards found statutory conditions for a redetermination of benefits existed and directed continuation of the redetermination process.

Commissioner Wayne Maras (Cottonwood County) moved the initial order regarding Murray County JD 5; Commissioner Loy Woelber (Murray County) seconded. Similar motions for JD 22, JD 23, JD 24, JD 28 and CD 30 were moved and seconded by the commissioners identified on the record. Each order appointed or ratified viewers to carry out the redetermination work; where viewers previously appointed (Bryan Murphy and Aaron Goemann) had disqualified or left the viewing firm, the boards appointed Scott Henderson of H2Over Viewers, LLC as a replacement viewer and directed the Murray County Auditor-Treasurer to obtain required viewer qualifications and oaths.

The joint actions also designated Murray County as the “majority” county for administration of the resulting joint systems and directed coordination between Murray County staff and each partnering county auditor for future management under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 103E.

All of the listed joint drainage authority orders were adopted by recorded roll calls showing unanimous yeas among the voting commissioners present on the joint boards. The motions were procedural and directed continued proceedings; no final benefit determinations or dollar assessments were adopted at the July 1 meetings.

Why it matters: Redetermination of benefits can change which properties are designated as benefitted by a drainage system and can affect future assessments for repairs or improvements. Appointing disinterested, statutorily qualified viewers is an early step required by Minnesota drainage law before viewers report updated maps and dollar values to a drainage authority.

Next steps: Viewers will qualify by oath as required by statute and proceed with on-the-ground viewings and reporting. Those reports, once completed, will return to the joint drainage authorities for formal findings and any assessment decisions.