Royal annexation, drainage issues raise concerns

(Photo submitted) Julian Ortiz was sworn in as a full-time Clay County Sheriff's Deputy by Clay County Supervisor Chairman Burlin Matthews during Tuesday's Clay County Supervisors meeting. The two were joined by Clay County Sheriff Randy Krukow and Ortiz's family, wife, Deb and son, Abraham.

Royal Mayor Pam Virelli joined the Clay County Supervisors Tuesday morning as the governing board was asked to moved forward with a process that may eventually annex multiple properties in Royal to deal with drainage district issues.

Frank Rouse, the county's drainage engineer, explained to Virelli and the board that the discovery of some properties currently utilizing Drainage District 108 are not being charged for the service and are not currently being charged with any associated drainage ditch. Other homes, currently in Drainage District 23, which includes Virelli's property, are also seeing some of their draining going into the 108 system.

"Anybody who contributes water into that should be annexed into the district," Rouse said.

Virelli raised concern regarding a couple of matters associated with drainage district problems which have been in the problem solving process for the past two years.

"I was told two years ago that once you're in a drainage district, you're always in a drainage district. If we're annexed into 108, we're going to have a double assessment," Virelli said.

It was explained that the charges would be proportionate for each district based on use.

Before the matter moves forward, the county was asked to authorize the project engineer, Richard Hopper, of Jacobson-Westergard and Associates Inc. of Estherville, to proceed with a annexation report to determine exactly which properties are draining into the 108 system. The supervisors agreed to ask Dean Johnson and Wayne Carlson to serve as resident freeholders to help assess and and classify the lands to be annexed.

Clay County Engineer, Scott Rinehart reminded everyone, "We don't even have the engineer's report yet."

Virelli suggested that two years ago she was told that the cost of the annexation and reclassification process would cost $7,000. Now the project is expected to cost between $2,000 and $3,000. It was noted that none of the cost would be passed along to the residents currently being served by district 108.

Virelli also raised the issue regarding the two-year time span and the lack of cleaning of the existing lines. Virelli, who prefaced her comments by saying that she liked Hopper personally, said, "If he doesn't have the time to handle it, we should get somebody else...As time goes by, things get more expensive."

Supervisor Linda Swanson added, "What they are really frustrated about is having to work with Rich Hopper and getting nothing done."

Supervisor Del Brockshus said, "There are two issues, we need to clean the tile and the annexation. That annexation has got to happen. It's against the law."

Rinehart pointed out, "No matter how much you clean that pipe, you're still going to have a drainage problem in Royal."

Brockshus suggested that Hopper and all the "players" involved be brought around one table at the next meeting on March 10 to visit all the issues.

Supervisors review county audit

Arvin Druvenga, joined by Lisa Peters, the primary accountant in charge of field work with the Clay County audit appeared before the Board of Supervisors on behalf of Winther, Stave & Co., to present that annual county financial summary.

County and local tax revenue of $23,594,705 for the year ended June 30, 2008 included $1,599,868 in tax credits from the state. The county forwarded $17,391,560 of the local tax revenue to the townships, school districts, cities and other taxing bodies in the county.

The county retained $6,203,145 of the local tax revenue to finance county operations, a 2.5 percent decrease from the prior year. Other revenues included charges for service of $614,512, operating with capitol grants, contributions and restricted interest of $2,333,386, unrestricted investment earnings of $284,473, and other general revenues of $2,383,475.

Expenses for county operations totaled $10,511,057, a 5.2 percent increase from the prior year. Expenses included $3,552,687 for roads and transportation, $1,916,865 for public safety and legal services, and $1,595,028 for mental health.

Couple question dead end road maintenance

Lory and Jeff Krummen, who are in the process of selling property to a young family near the end of a dead end road in Clay County appeared before the supervisors and Rinehart to seek better maintenance of the road. The Chris Axtel family plans to build a home on the five-plus acres, but have concerns about the current condition of the road.

Lory Krummen asked, "How can these roads be forgotten...why is this road never maintained?"

Rinehart explained, "We've got a number of roads with lower service...There's not enough bang for the taxpayer's buck."

It was explained to the Krummens that if they want to see the road improved, then they will need to get some agreement from neighboring property owners to help pay for the upgrade in quality and service.

"Pay for it, we'll build it," Rinehart said.

In other business

* A public hearing for the FY 2010 Clay County Budget has been set for 9 a.m., Tuesday, March 10.

* Dr. David Robison, MD was reappointed as the Clay County Medical Examiner for a term ending Dec. 31, 2009.

* Christopher Lee Raveling, Peterson; Michael Weber, Spencer; James Berhow, Spencer; and John Michael Hill, Spirit Lake were all appointed as Deputy Medical Examiners for the county.

* New wages were approved in conjunction with new assignments at the Clay County Sheriff's office. The changes were made based on Casey Timmer's promotion to Drug Task Force Administrator; Dennis Linn's promotion to Jail Administrator; Brad Hawley's promotion to Chief Deputy; Julian Ortiz's promotion from part-time to full-time; and Eric Tigges' shift to reserve deputy.