Floyd County supervisors OK ditch data analysis at special meeting

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to approve having a company analyze topographical information regarding the ditch in Drainage District No. 3 in Floyd County.

The ditch underwent a major repair job last fall, but some of the property owners in the drainage district have said that parts of the job were not done correctly, including that the banks were not seeded or were seeded incorrectly and nothing is growing on them now to prevent erosion into the ditch.

The supervisors at their meeting May 6 had approved hiring Aerial Services Inc. of Cedar Rapids to fly over the ditch using LIDAR (laser mapping) to create a three-dimensional model of the ditch. That service cost $5,300, which will be paid for by property owners in the drainage district.

Aerial Services turned over some of the data to the county to see if the county’s mapping and GIS software could analyze it and create the needed models, but it was determined the county could not.

At this week’s regular Tuesday meeting, Supervisor Chair Dennis Keifer said he was going to call a special meeting this week to authorize paying Aerial Services an additional $2,560 to process the data and provide the maps and other information the county wants.

Supervisor Gloria Carr wondered why a special meeting was necessary, saying that even if the data shows problems with the ditch there is no work that can be done now.

“Why can’t we do this Tuesday” at next week’s regular meeting, she asked.

Keifer said people in the drainage district needed answers, and the sooner the better.

Keifer and Carr went back and forth for several minutes, until Keifer said, “I’m not going to argue with you. We’re going to have this meeting Thursday. … It’s going to happen, Gloria.”

As chair, Keifer sets the agenda for board meetings and has the power to call special meetings.

On Thursday, Carr again questioned the urgency and asked what the board was going to do with the information it gets from Aerial Services.

Keifer said, “There is a concern that some slopes are not what the contract called for. If they were not done correctly then the engineer or the contractor didn’t do it correctly.”

Keifer was referring to Bolton & Menk, the Algona engineering firm in charge of the project, and Larson Contracting of Lake Mills, the company that won the bid.

“If they weren’t done correctly in the first place they need to be done correctly,” Keifer said.

Carr again said nothing could be done for months until this year’s crops are harvested.

Supervisor Boyd Campbell, who is a property owner in the drainage district, said, “If this satisfies the people of District 3, then so be it.”

Saying, “I just want to move on with this,” Campbell made a motion to approve paying Aerial Services $2,560 to process the data and the other two supervisors agreed, passing the motion 3-0 and ending the meeting in under 15 minutes.