By: Matt Scher, [email protected]
Dakota City, IA – The Humboldt County Conservation Board says the clock has run out for R.I.V.E.R. Development, Inc. to purchase the Joe Reasoner Dam.
At Wednesday’s Humboldt County Conservation Board session, the board passed a motion four to one brought to the floor by board member Tate Satern to discontinue further discussions with the River group and to proceed on pursuing an engineering firm for Stantec’s option two or three for work on the Joe Reasoner Dam in Humboldt and the Rutland Dam.
A deadline had been set by the conservation board for 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 18, the start of this month’s meeting, for the R.I.V.E.R. group to officially sign the purchase agreement of the dam for one dollar along with proof of insurance. The R.I.V.E.R. group’s Gary Jensen stated that the group had yet to get insured with their latest potential insurer telling the group they need to secure land on the east and west side of the dam to have an address attached. The land in question on the east side of the dam currently belongs to the City of Humboldt in multiple properties, with the west side owned by three different entities, which include the City of Humboldt, Humboldt County and the Humboldt County Housing Development Association and is divided evenly between the three.
The board questioned the chances of all three entities agreeing to sell the land on the east side and that the land would have to go through a public sale. A concern by Humboldt County Conservation Board Director Todd Lee was in regard to if the public sale was not won by the river group; whoever does win the sale may not grant an easement for the ongoing Eagle Ridge Nature Trail project slated to go through the land in question. The board also stated that Stantec’s option two, which would lower the crest of the dam and option three (remove the dam in its entirety) would take a considerable amount of land out of the floodplain.
The majority included board members Tate Satern, Bob Rasmussen, Mary Miner and TC Loving. Board member Will Spellmeyer was the one dissenting vote, citing a previous suggestion by Rasmussen on possibly allowing a final month for the group to work on securing land to get insurance.
KHBT will continue to follow this story.