Drainage trustees reviewed a petition submitted by landowners seeking to convert a privately owned tile lateral to county (district) ownership. Staff told trustees the contractor estimate for televising the lateral — assuming the pipe is clean and requires no jetting — is $33,760 to cover 6,360 feet of televising work.

Staff explained televising is not mandatory for the county to receive the asset but said televising gives the county needed information about condition before accepting a future maintenance burden. Petitioners posted two $10,000 checks as bond. Trustees discussed options including accepting the title as‑is (using the bond to cover initial engineering work), hiring Agrivia (working with McClure) to verify the watershed boundary and to identify landowners, or holding an informational meeting and letting district landowners decide whether to proceed.

Board direction and next steps: trustees agreed to notify all landowners in Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 and to hold an informational meeting so owners can view maps and get questions answered; staff will mail notices and return with a formal agenda item. Trustees tentatively set the informational meeting for Dec. 15 at 10:00 a.m. and did not authorize televising at this meeting. Earlier drainage minutes and claims were read and approved and the board approved a contractor claim for $1,100 for weed control.

Why it matters: accepting private tile as a public district asset can shift maintenance and replacement costs from private landowners to the district (and thus to the district’s ratepayers); televising or engineering work helps determine whether accepting the asset is financially feasible and how costs should be allocated among landowners.