I have just been reading about the termination of the South Two River Watershed District in the St. Cloud newspaper. It appears that this Stearns County Watershed District was established in 1986 to address flooding, drainage and water quality. After 20 years it was decided that this had not been done and a petition to terminate was circulated, signed and taken to the Board of Water and Soil Resources. After the proper hearings, the district was terminated.
This district had existed for 20 years and was operating on an annual budget of $30,000 when terminated. (The highest levy it had made was $60,000.) There were four managers and their office force amounted to a person paid for four hours of work per week.
It would appear that the people of Stearns County are much faster learners than ours here in Jackson, Nobles, Murray and Cottonwood counties. We have a district that is now spending $240,000 from their levy -- with approximately 86 percent of that amount spent for salaries, benefits and operating expenses plus many thousands more of grant monies (still tax money, by the way) -- and it still has not addressed the flooding and drainage problems that it was supposed to address when created 35 years ago.
To spend these monies we have five managers, an office administrator, three technicians and an education coordinator. Is it something in the water down here?
