Whitley County Drainage Board approves consents, awards bids and schedules assessment hearings

The Whitley County Drainage Board met and, by voice vote, approved the minutes from the February 17 meeting, multiple consents for permanent structures, contracted out several drainage jobs and authorized notices for two assessment hearings.

The board approved permanent-structure consents for fence and access requests including a fence that will cross tile on the Smith Braden parcel (644-0000B) for property owners Brian and Sonia Emer; a pole-barn consent for Kevin and Janet Barley on Gangware H number 30 in Union Township; and driveway/access for NIPCO on drain 850-0000AB to reach a planned communications tower. Staff advised the board on locating existing tiles and catch basins where the proposed work will cross drainage infrastructure.

On procurement, the board awarded the Alice J project contracts: Patriot Excavating won the labor bid at $18,400; Bauman Tile was awarded the pipe contract at $19,834.32; and Brad Hall Trucking was awarded the stone/backfill at $20.95 per ton. For vegetation/spray work across four regions the board awarded the northwest, northeast and central portions to Dalton (northwest noted as 21.1 cents per foot, meeting record lists $64,040.82 for the northwest portion) and awarded the south portion to Rightway Management for $51,064.97.

In its fieldwork and engineering reports, staff said a site visit to the railroad bridge over the Eel River near South Whitley found trees and bank failures creating more obstruction to flow than the bridge structure itself. Staff also reported replacing a damaged 12-inch tile identified as Goal E number 37 after finding multiple sink holes and crop debris; the board approved going "in the red" on that line item to complete the repair.

The board voted to send notices and set hearings to propose assessment increases on two drains. For Stangland number 33 the board approved notices for a proposed assessment of $20 per acre with a $200 minimum (the transcript recorded that would collect $18,758.22 per year). For the Staples L drain staff recommended increasing the assessment from $4 per acre/$20 minimum to $20 per acre with a $100 minimum to fund clearing and maintenance; the board approved sending notice for that hearing as presented.

Staff also updated members on other ongoing projects: contractor work on goal-area drains (including runs across county roads 900 and 250) and progress on the Michel project, where crews resumed work after frost and discovered an existing 30-inch tile nearly 380 feet north of its mapped location, prompting an order for additional pipe to reach the intended tie-in.

The board had no other business and adjourned.