IVANHOE — Lincoln County commissioners will today consider a petition by Alfred Jessen to partially abandon Branch 1 of Joint County Ditch (JD) 16, which applies to his property.

The petition will likely be signed without much comment, said Deb Vierhuf, county auditor, as the commissioners had heard the original report as the Joint Drainage Authority on which all the Lincoln County commissioners sat at the required hearing.

They will be reminded that the Joint Drainage Authority for Lincoln and Pipestone County Boards (drainage authority for JD 16) conducted a public hearing on the petition in accordance with Minnesota State Statutes, and based on the record and proceedings, voted unanimously to adopt the following Findings and Order:

“The petition for partial abandonment of Branch 1 of Joint County Ditch 16 is approved. No further repair petition for the abandoned portion of the drainage system may be accepted and the drainage authority’s responsibility to maintain the abandoned portion of drainage system is terminated by this order,” the Ditch Authority said. “This order shall not release any property from a drainage lien field on account of the drainage system before the date of this order, nor shall this order release any property from any assessment or a drainage lien filed on or after the date of this order for costs incurred on account of the drainage system before the date of the order.”

The portion of the drainage system sought to be abandoned is described as follows: Branch 1, located on the north side of Joint County Ditch 16, in Section 35 of Hope Township, Lincoln County. Jessen is the owner of benefited property on Branch 1 of Joint County Ditch 16.

In the petition, Jessen asserts that the part of the drainage system proposed to be abandoned “does not serve a substantial useful purpose as part of the drainage system to any property remaining in the system and is not of substantial public benefit and utility.”

“The Petition for Partial Abandonment is in proper form and is legally sufficient and adequate for the purposes of these proceedings,” the Joint Drainage Authority stated in its findings. “Based on the evidence presented, the portion of Joint County Ditch 16 proposed to be abandoned does not serve any useful purpose to any affected property and is not of public benefit and utility. The drainage system only provides drainage to Alfred Jessen’s property and does not affect any other benefited member of the system.”

The drainage authority, in consultation with the auditor, had held a public hearing for the petition on April 17. Those present were Pipestone County Commissioner Luke Johnson, all of the Lincoln County commissioners, Alfred Jessen, Robert Olsen, Deb Vierhuf and members of the public. The auditor had given legal notice of the hearing to the owners of all property benefited by the drainage system.

“Notice of the public hearing was properly provided as required by law,” the Joint Drainage Authority stated. “Evidence of all notices provided for the hearing is on file with the drainage authority.”

At Jessen’s request, Lincoln County Environmental Administrator Robert Olsen made the presentation at the public meeting to abandon 500 feet of JCD 16 so that all responsibility of that section would become the landowners.

Olsen explained that the Ditch Authority could require the petitioner to request a redetermination.

“If the Ditch Authority went that route, (though),” Olsen said, “there would be engineering fees and legal fees that would be costly.”

Letters had been sent out to all benefited parties of JCD16 regarding the abandonment and no opposition had been received. Olsen had received some phone calls but after some explanation, there was no opposition.

During the public hearing portion of the proceedings, no other persons had appeared to provide comment.