Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1911 — IROQUOIS DITCH REPORT [ARTICLE]

IROQUOIS DITCH REPORT

Estimated Benefits of $143,335, and Cost Placed at $104,763. H. L. Gamble, engineer, and S. D. Clark and Thorpe Beagley, as drainage commissioners, filed their report in the extension of the Iroquois ditch (known of record as the Borntrager ditch) last Friday. The rpport is one of the largest ditch reports ever filed in Jasper county, and covers 644 pages of record. While landowners in Jasper, Newton, Benton and White counties are assessed, the assessments, however, are very light except in the immediate vicinity of the proposed ditch. . The! estmated benefits are $143,335 and tlfeestimated cost —based on 6J4 cents per yard for the 1,540,128 cubic yards—is $104,763. It is the opinion of most people that the ditch will sell for several thousand dollars less than this figure, however, as there is no rock to remove and it is a very desirable contract.

The Howe ditch sold at 4.90 cents per cubic yard, and the upper Iroquois—the dirt work—at about 5y 2 cents. This work should sell at an even lower figure. . v ■ ’

The present length of the river to the point where the improvements ends is about 30 miles; the proposed ditch will reduce this to about 14 miles. In addition to the main ditch there are three short laterals, and the estimate filed provides for the contractoi removing all bridges. Remonstrators have ten days to file objections to. the report.