The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-05-10

The records of the drains are compete
up to the time of the completion OF the
drain but unless the subsequent work
of cleaning them assumed large enough
proportions to take place in the
records with the new drains. the
records of such cleaning out were not
where they could be easily got at. The
need for such records has been greatly
increasing within the'last few years and
now new book has been secured and set
apart entirely to record of the clean
ing out of drains. Hereafter the
records of all such jobs will be as
readily accessible as are the records of
the original cost of construction them
selves.
The entire system is in marked con-
trast with the old system which was
conducted by the township drain COM
missioners. In some instances the
records of the township drain com.
missioners were turned over to the
county drain commissioner in good con.
dition. The records turned over by
the township drain commissioners OF
Burns, Rush, Vernon, and New Haven
were in good shape. Venice and
Caledonia turned over no records at all.
The records of Hazelton and Sciota
were burned and lost almost COM
pletely. The records of the other
towns were in varying conditions of
servicefulness. In many counties con-
siderable sums of money have been
spent for clerk hire in Strengthening out
the records of the township drains after
the change in the law which turned the
township commissioners out of Office
and turned their records over to the
county drain commissioner, but this
county has never made any appro.
priation for such purpose and the
county commissioner has been COM
PEELED to make such use as he could OF
the old records where there were
any and make entirely new surveys
where there were no records at all to
60 to. AS time passes however and
more and more of the old town drains
are dug out anew the need for clearing
up the old records passes away as
new record is formed on the books of
the county commissioner.
1t is not always appreciated fact
that the Office of county drain com
missioner is a good one for the COM
munity in which the commissioner
happens to live, but the fact is that
during last year alone Drain Com.
missioner Parker paid out in county
drain orders twenty-five thousand
dollars, and they are practically as
good as cash under the present law.
In years gone by drain orders were
often about as good as wild cat bank
currency-and too often no better than
it. The law under which drains are
laid today however secures the holders
by its provisions, indirectly, but very
effectually. If no one institutes
certlorarl proceedings In the case OF
any drain within ten days after the
commissioner has filed copy of his
final order of determination with the
county clerk, this copy to be filed with
in five days from the determination and
after securing the right of way, then
the drain Shall be judged to be legally
laid and there can be no uncertainty as
to the raising of the amount of money
necessary to defray the expenses of the
same after that time. Any change
which may be made in decreasing the
tax of any individual after that time
merely shifts so much more on the
others within the assessment district,
and does not operate in any case to
make discount necessary on any order
when the time comes for its payment.