05/15/1985 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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198 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING May 15, 1985 Page -6- Mr. Neil Banta said it appeared that the ditch that crossed Main Street was not doing its job and asked if it could be contributing to the problem north of Sherwood Green. Mr. Davidson said the crossing under Main Street is very shallow and did not think it was much of the problem. Mr. Nelson said when Sherwood Green was platted the water table was seven to eight feet deep. Now it is four to five feet deep and the only thing different is the culvert under Main Street is bigger. Mr. Davidson said the water table in the metro area is rising and is due mostly to having three successive winters with little or no frost and wet falls and springs and all the water is percolating into the soil instead of running off. Mr. Ruud said this problem is in all of Anoka County and as far as Wilmar. Mrs. Sharpen of 801 Main Street explained the problem they exper- ienced in determining whether the ditch near their property is pri- vate or county and was told the water did not cross Main Street but runs along side of the street. Mr. Davidson said the culvert accross Main Street is low and the water does not disperse from the area. Mrs. Sharpen said she would be willing to ditch her own land but it will be of no value if it does not run off or floods someone else out. Mayor Benson asked RCWD and the county what they can do along with the City, what kind of committments can we look at to get this porject done. Mr. Ruud said he will be working with the City Eng- ineer in developing their plans and identifying the drainage needs. If part of the solution to that problem is to be some extensive ditch repair, he did not know if the county board would petition that kind of improvement but expected it would be appropriate for the County Engineer to recommend that the county pay for their share of the improvement based on the area of right of way com- pared to the total area that is going to benefit from the project. The County takes its area and doubles it. He also noted that if the improvement is going all the way down to 35W, MnDot should be picking up some assessment for the area of their right of way at Highway #49. Maybe the prison will benefit and maybe even the state will participate. If there is additional need for funding benefitting property owners will be assessed. Mr. Willenbring said RCWD will be happy to work with the City Eng- ineer and the County Engineer to come up with the most cost eff- ective solution to the problem. Funding is always a problem. He will discuss this at the next RCWD meeting and try to work toward making some of the ditch maintenance funds available. This is one of the bigger problem areas of the district and perhaps they can try to move some of their funds over there. It is a substantial project. Mayor Benson said if everyone takes a hand in this the cost may not be as great as is thought, it could even be larger. Maybe the 1