MARSHALL — There weren’t many public comments at Lyon County ditch assessment hearings held Tuesday. Instead, county Planning and Zoning Administrator John Biren was able to give updates on planned and ongoing ditch repairs in the county.

Lyon County commissioners met as the county drainage authority on Tuesday, to hold a hearing on proposed ditch assessments.

“We’re going to consider the 2025 ditch maintenance assessments as we go through these,” Commissioner Gary Crowley said.

In two separate votes, commissioners approved a total of seven ditch assessments.

There were a few members of the public present at the hearing Tuesday morning. Biren encouraged them to speak up with questions or concerns about a particular county ditch system.

“When we sent the notice in the paper and so forth, we noticed all the ditches, and we’re not collecting money on all the systems,” he said. “If we go through just the ones we’re collecting on, we may miss those (other) folks.”

Biren set the pattern for the hearing, as he went through the list of county ditches with proposed 2025 assessments.

“Our first one we have on our list here is County Ditch number 38. We’re looking at a 20% assessment value on that,” Biren said. “The original benefits were set in 1917. We have $15,616 worth of benefits in there. So 20% of that number is $3,123.20, so that’s what we’re looking to collect on that system.”

Biren said one of the reasons the county was looking at an assessment on CD 38 was there was work that needed to be done on its outlet.

The county was looking at a 5% assessment on County Ditch 40, which would come to $6,583.03.

“This (ditch) is just south of Russell. It dumps into an unnamed tributary that gets to the Redwood River there,” Biren said. “There’s a fair amount of work to be done on that system.”

The county was looking at a 2% assessment on County Ditch 51, which would come to $5,253.88. There was a ditch washout on that system during June’s heavy rains, Biren said.

The county was also looking at a 2% assessment on County Ditch 64, near the landfill.

“That tile system on the landfill property has been neglected for a number of years, and we needed to do some tile re-routing out there last year,” Biren said. While the landfill did pay for that repair, he said, “We do have some more fixing to do through that wet area.”

Biren said the CD 64 assessment would come to $8,451.73.

Commissioners approved the assessment increases for the four ditches.

There were members of the public with questions about past assessments on County Ditch 14 and Judicial Ditch 13, but not on the proposed 2025 assessments at the hearing.

Biren gave an update on ongoing ditch repairs on CD 14.

“The progress of repair has been slow with the weather,” he said. “I’d say we’re maybe two-thirds, maybe a strong half of the way done with the tile, and then the retention projects are going to be built. We have a completion date of November 14 or 15 . . . I feel pretty comfortable that they’re going to meet that date.”

Biren said there was still a lot of pressure on the CD 14 system, and the county was looking at applying for additional grant funds to try and alleviate it.

Commissioners held a separate hearing on proposed assessments on joint ditch systems. Biren said a 5% assessment was being proposed on Judicial Ditch 9, Lyons branch 11A.

“This is the old Black Rush Lake tile system, this is upstream of that,” he said. “We’re trying to build this account up a little bit in anticipation of having to do a pretty big repair out there.”

The proposed assessment would come to $2,309.73.

A 2% assessment was proposed on Judicial Ditch 24, Yellow Medicine lateral 1 and lateral 1A. “This is actually the outlet of Cottonwood Lake there, downstream of the dam. There are some trees and some work to be done on that,” Biren said. The assessment would come to $6,831.84.

A third assessment was proposed on a portion of the Redwood River that is also Judicial Ditch 37. Biren said the ditch was established by a judge after flooding in Marshall in the 1950s. Establishing the system allowed for a way to help fund flood controls on the river.

The proposed assessment was for 20%,which would come to $2,517.70.

There were no comments on the judicial ditch assessments at the hearing. Commissioners voted to approve the proposed assessments.