Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1920 — AT LAST TO GET RYAN DITCH [ARTICLE]

AT LAST TO GET RYAN DITCH

Agreement Is Reached and Long Controversy Now Ended. While Special Judge Isham entered an order Wednesday establishing the Ryan ditch, it was not until Thursday that the finishing touches were added which, it is understood, now practically assures the improvement being started in the near future and the ultimate completion of the ditch, which has had a long and stormy path through the courts for the past 10 years, having been to the supreme court twice. Thursday morning, the court’s minutes show, that all the defendants and plaintiffs, both petitioners and remonstrators, withdrew request for special findings, and the court found for the petitioners; that the ditch is of public utility and the amended report of the drainage commissioned should be confirmed and approved, except as to assessments and damages modified by the court. Judgment establishing ditch; referred to County Surveyor Nesbitt, construction commissioner. Agreed that all costs heretofore made shall be taxed up to the ditch and paid out of Ryan ditch fund.

The estimated benefits on the main ditch are $315,000, which with damages allowed and assessments reduced, will now be about $310,000, in round figures. The estimated cost is $242,000, and while it is scarcely expected that the work can be sold at this time at the latter figure, it is thought it can be sold at a slight advance over this estimate. The- dirt estimate is It cents per yard and the rock $1.25 per yard. This case has been in the courts since October, 1909, when the original petition was filed. It has had a stormy passage since that time and the higher courts have had two twists at it. Friends of the improvement contend that many farmers affected have lost enough in crops drowned out in a single season to pay their entire assessment. • In any event, if it had been constructed several years, ago it could have been dug for considerably less money than now and the landowners would have had it practically paid for and been reaping the benefits all these years.