Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-10-05
ASSESS THE BENEFITS
Drainage Ditch Commissions
Work Almost Completed
Range Upward
From 75C on Town Lots.
Are Based On S24O per 4O-acre
Tract as 100 Per Gent
Railroads will Pay All Told but
ll-4Pcr Cent Of the Total
Expense
Oct. L:

Z, vi llu(s NlOu
Expense
Nonpareil, Oct. L:
From Is cents on town lots
at Modale to S24O on numerous
4U-acre tracts within the joint
drainage district of Pottawatta-
mie and Harrison counties is
the extreme range of taxes to
be levied against real estate for
ditch benefits. The report of
the commissioners appointed to
% over the ground and assess
benefits is nearly completed
and will be ready for filing
with the auditors of the two
counties in a day or two.
1t shows amounts varying all
the way between those figures,
which must be paid by owners
of lands to provide a fund for
defraying the cost of ditch con
struction.
The commissioners are Henry
| Weisc of Avoca and S. G.. Eshel-
man OF Woodbine. They were
assisted in viewing the land by
County Surveyor j. II. Mayne,
who since that time has been
engaged in framing the report
and making up the schedule of
ditch assessments. Several.
Thousand pieces of land hav,
been gone over and the work
has been extremely tedious, as
each tract, no matter how
small, had to be assessed by it
self. Everything was comput-
ed on an acreage basis, the
maximum assessment being sc
Iper acre.
TOOK S24O AS BASIS.
In assessing each forty acres,
1.-THE commissioners took $24O as
100 per cent and reckoned the
ditch tax according to the esti-
mated benefits the land would
receive. A great many forties
were put in at the full amount,
while others were marked down
on the percentage scale. The
SMALLEST assessment on tracts
of this size was made on river
lots several miles below the
mouth of the big ditch system
This land was listed at 5 per
cent, owing to the fact that it
is very little more than sand
bars and will never be valuable
for agricultural use. Outside
of these lots, the lowest the
commissioners have gone is 10
per cent, or 1924 on $40 acres.
The average quarter section.
under the schedule of assess
ment as it is being prepared,
will be taxed from $500 to 5000
for the ditch work. Some will
not be assessed more than 5000,
but on a good many there will
be a full levy, or 5000. The
highest assessments naturally
follow the routes of the several
bitches quite closely, while the
lands that will have less burden
to bear are generally on the
edges of the drainage district.
The entire city of Missouri
Valley is taken in, and the
larger lots there, approximate
ling one acre, are assessed in
percentages of Sc. On ordin-
airy sized lots, one half acre or
less in size, the tax is graded
from SO down to $1.20. There
is no other property assessed so
cheaply as Modale town lots,
some of which are rated at 12a
per cent on the Sc valuation, or
rs cents apiece.
RAILROADS PAY SMALL SHARE.
Assessments against the two
railroad companies which have
track mileage in the drainage
district are so small that they
will prove disappointing to
ditch advocates who had ex-
pected that the roads would
have to pay a good share of the
lexpense. The Illinois Central