Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1911 — 468 PEOPLE REMONSTRATE [ARTICLE]

468 PEOPLE REMONSTRATE

Against Report in the Borntrager (Iroquois) Ditch. WEDNESDAY WAS LAST DAY For Filing, and Matter of Adjusting the Assessments Is Now Up to the Court—Objectors Number About OneFifth of the Total Number of Persons Assessed, Which Is About Two Thousand. Wednesday was the last day for filing (Objections to the report of the drainage commissioners on the Borntrager ditch. There were 468 individual remonstrances filed, the principal objection being to the benefits assessed. In fact there is not much objection to the construction of the ditch heard any more, and the parties objecting to the assessments now are almost wholly those whose lands are quite a distance from the proposed improvement, and they think their assessments are too high and that the land along the improvement too low. Of course the assessments are made on the basis of estimated benefits, $140,000, but the estimated cost of construction is but 5104,000, and it is thought the work will sell much below that figure perhaps at from $75,000 to SBO,OOO, therefore it would only require about one-half the amount of the total assessments to construct the ditch. The whole matter is now up to the court to adjust, and it will take a general overhauling of the assessments, it seems, to come anywheres near satisfying the land owners who have been assessed benefits.