Redetermination of all ditch systems considered

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
Some of the original ditch systems constructed to drain water from farmland in Swift County go back to the very early 1900s. At the time, the landowners who benefited from the ditch systems were assessed a levy based on how much they benefited from the drainage systems in the watershed.

However, over the decades new ditches were dug, new tile lines were put in, and pattern tiling evolved to take water away more efficiently from farmland making it more productive. In a fair number of instances, while new farmland was benefiting from the ditches, it wasn’t being assessed.

New Swift County Drainage Inspector Kody Fossum would like to see that change. At the Tuesday, Oct. 5, county board of commissioners meeting, Fossum said he was planning on putting in for a redetermination of benefits on all the joint, judicial, and county ditches across the county...
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